ARMADA, Mich. — Severe weather and a possible tornado brought destruction to the village of Armada Saturday night. Members of the Macomb County community have been there rebuilding since.
Community members came to the area most impacted — a few blocks off the town's Main Street — to help clean the streets and yards of their neighbors. Businesses in the immediate area are all closed.
The destruction was swift but disastrous, said Police Chief Michael Patrick.
"It was here and gone rather quickly, but it left devastation in its path," Patrick said.
Patrick said no injuries were reported, which he characterized as a "miracle" given the destruction. The cleanup and repairs will likely last at least into the next week.
Large trees in yards that had outlasted some owners were on their sides. Residents reported shattered windows, crushed cars and roof damage. Once full of large trees, Village Park will have about a quarter of what was there on Saturday.
Thousands were still without power Sunday. The National Weather Service planned to survey the area Sunday.
The NWS radar showed a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado over Armada that was moving at 20 mph just before 8 p.m. on Saturday. Multiple Michigan counties, including Macomb and Oakland, were under a tornado warning Saturday night.
"We saw signatures that indicated a tornado, including with rotation," Megan Varcie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake Township, told The Detroit News on Saturday.
Varcie said a series of severe storms passed through Michigan between 3 p.m. and midnight Saturday and a survey team is visiting Armada on Sunday to determine if it was hit by a tornado.
"We had widespread severe thunderstorms with some rotation embedded in them and that led to the damage we've been seeing, power outages and trees down in southeast Michigan," Varcie said.
Sunday afternoon, the weather service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado with winds of up to 100 mph touched down in Oakland County's White Lake Township on a path nearly two miles long and about 400 yards wide.
Thomas Hardesty, Oakland County's director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department, characterized the damage as low to moderate.
No businesses or homes were destroyed but some had visible damage from heavy winds and flying debris, Hardesty said. Officials will assess the damage and determine whether to ask for an emergency declaration, he said.
Lynette Vanryckeghem of Emmett went to Armada to help her brother-in-law and his family cleanup after the suspected tornado.
Just after the bout of severe weather came and went Saturday night in Armada, Chief Patrick said residents came in droves, ready with machinery to lend a hand to those most impacted. Tree trimmers and pickup trucks flooded in, with residents helping DTE Energy to clear the streets and allow for a smoother cleanup on Sunday.
"This is a great example of Armada and its residents," Patrick said. "This is what they do."
Some of this machinery will aid the clean-up process, Patrick said, as resident-owned equipment can get the pieces the Department of Public Works cannot.
Resident William Poulos described watching a tree, still upright, begin to twist as the strong winds came through Saturday. He and his son bolted to the basement to be with the rest of the family. After the storm came through, they boarded up the window and surveyed the damage.
Among the damage: Trees were down, windows were shattered and a board shot through one side of the house upstairs.
On Sunday, Poulos' family was joined by some friendly faces. Friends he had from Armada High School decades ago showed up unannounced ready to work.
"They brought a cooler full of water and beers," he said. "And I said, 'Perfect!'"
Lea Walkowski's Shear Hair Saloon had its front glass shattered by the strong winds Saturday night. Her son went to check on the damage and put a tarp up, but she came into town Sunday morning with another target.
Around the corner from the Main Street block her hair salon is on, she went to check on other store owners. She planned to eventually talk to some homeowners across the street from the businesses.
"We're a very right community who is here for everybody," she said. "That's how this town works. When one falls, we all fall."
This feeling of community is what drew community members from down the block and from miles away on Sunday. Ken Barbier left his powerless home in Armada Township and took his four-wheeler into town.
When he got to the damaged area, he was shocked by what he saw. "It looks like a bomb went off," he said.
Barbier said he came into town looking for a way to help. He was happy to see there were already community members at work when he got there Sunday afternoon.
"A lot of people are coming together to help out," Barbier said. "That's the great thing about a small community."
Saturday's severe weather toppled a shed and flattened a cornfield along North Hellems Road in Port Austin.
Port Austin, in Michigan's Thumb region, may have been hit with a second tornado in less than a month Saturday.
But the severe weather there, which hit around 4:30 p.m., appeared to be limited to a small area, toppling a shed and flattening a cornfield at M-25 and Hellems Road, according to residents.
Even though the damage was not widespread, Theresa Jandreski said seeing another possible tornado so quickly after the last one was scary.
"Now, of course, every time it storms you're out side looking, OK where is it? Is something going to happen again?" Jandreski said.
On June 26 an EF-2 tornado with peak winds estimated at 120 mph hit Port Austin and surrounding townships, damaging several homes at the southern portion of Port Austin village.
Saturday's storms also left one to two inches of rain in parts of southeast Michigan already impacted by recent flooding, with 2.81 inches in Richmond in Macomb County, 2.24 inches in Flint, 1.75 inches in White Lake Township, 1.52 inches in Saginaw, and 1.33 inches in Detroit.
Varcie said Metro Detroit is expected to have dry, warm weather the rest of Sunday and Monday with a possibility of thunderstorms again Tuesday.
