there's a pretty scary evening yesterday
that have some weather service just
confirming that two tornadoes swept
through mid Michigan last night one
registering as an ef-0
we want to show you some video new video
of a twister that hit Shiawassee County
touching down in Vernon and Durand 70
homes and businesses were damaged
leaving people without a place to stay
and now the cleanup begins local fours
Jason Cole Thorpe is joining us live now
in Shiawassee County with a look at the
damage Jason and everyone it's really
easy to tell that this was a tornado
because as far as the eye can see you
have debris everywhere and I just want
to give you a bird's-eye view
look behind you see debris parts of a
roof all the way into that cornfield
straight away and as we just turn 360
degrees the house to the back here has
part of the roof roof ripped off debris
all through this field into this yard
here we have power lines down off in the
distance there and of course this house
hit the hardest in this area a garage
just torn right away and there's some
structural damage you can hear the
generator running right now clearly no
power but I mean a huge chunk this was
the side of the garage right here and to
talk about how powerful these tornadoes
were you just see it right here and one
woman lived through it 92 years old she
talked to Priya man
there's debris like this spread from
miles really every direction and take a
look over there 92 year old Lucille
Warner was in her home when that tornado
ripped off the roof I was sitting in the
living room I got up and went in the
bathroom and everything popped the great
grandmother realized a tornado was
dangerously close I didn't go into a
basement yeah I just went to the
bathroom and shut the door and it just a
few minutes it was all over when the
coast was clear she walked out and
looked up I just noticed that everything
was gone I looked up and then roof was
gone that's when Lucille noticed her
grandson standing it what was left of
the front entrance along with emergency
responders we just stood there for a
while yes just kept asking me are you
okay and I said yes
the tornado slammed Shiawassee County
Thursday night the hardest hit areas
were Vernor Township and Durant smaller
communities between Flint and Lansing
telephone poles and trees were toppled
and more than 70 homes and businesses
damaged thankfully no one was injured
but it will take some time to clean up
the mess Mother Nature left behind how
are you feeling right now
I need a little rest sleep yeah I need a
cup of coffee and crews will be working
throughout the day to restore power
after thousands lost their power
following the storm meanwhile today
surveyors with the National Weather
Service will be here assessing the
damage to gatogo eyes the strength of
that tornado
reporting from Durand I'm free a man
local for all right Priya and this is
just another piece of that garage a good
50 yards from where that house is and if
you're looking for an example of how
powerful that storm was that's a dead
bull
separated from its door just laying out
here amongst the debris we could tell
you there are a lot of roads closed
right now a lot of crews out here
working on power lines working on trees
down working on debris heavy damage in
this area and also we should point out
members of the National Weather Service
out on scene again trying to determine
the power of that second tornado and as
we send it back in to Brandon Brandon
obviously signs here that just because a
tornado is classified as an ef-0 doesn't
mean it can't do heavy damage like this
big time and the second report expected
to be of a an even stronger tornado they
released the first report of the weakest
of the two and the severe storm reports
yesterday coming in you see several of
these tornado icons even into Genesee
County and the Weather Service believes
that at least two in Shiawassee County
and maybe more in Genesee and that's
what they're looking at but the first
report came out on the weaker of the two
in Shiawassee EF 0 65 to 85 mile an hour
winds uprooting and snapping large trees
reports that a very solid farm structure
lost its roof and in addition to that
yeah that was the worst of it but we had
one in a half inch sized hail in
Washtenaw County power lines down in
parts of McComb County