first at four a mother's grief and new
legal action we'll talk about a new
federal lawsuit connected to the oxford
school shooting and who's being targeted
now in court
drone four live over the tornado
destruction up in gaylord the cleanup a
lucky break that led to a quicker
response and now people are showing up
to help after the disaster let's say you
want to check in with brett color but a
solid 10 plus degrees below normal at
the moment but warmer temperatures are
on the horizon
as is more rain we're diving into it
right now first at four
[Music]
live from downtown detroit local 4 news
first at 4 starts now
first at 4 scenes like this from gaylord
tough to see even if you've never been
there or have plans to visit you have to
feel for our neighbors to the north
after a deadly tornado left all of this
kind of destruction behind two people
are dead more than 40 injured today the
small town about 230 miles northwest of
detroit trying to pick up the pieces and
hoping to heal we've been covering this
disaster for three days now and it's
still hard to believe just how much
damage was done so quickly such was the
power of this tornado team coverage
coming up on first at four paula tutman
reviewing the weather alert system and
what to do when you need to find cover
but let's start off with nick monticelli
live in gaylord who's been looking at
this impact of this storm and he's got
more of what we're seeing today three
days later nick
yeah devin you said a key word though
you said trying to pick up the pieces
that's exactly what's happening here in
gaylord because how can you pick up
something like this there are 72 lots in
this mobile home community 95 percent of
them so nearly 70 homes destroyed one
look from the ground level another from
drone four take a look at this this
gives you the true perspective that true
shock in awe value when you look at
what's really going on here and most
importantly how many lives have been
devastated
the cleanup in gaylord is barely
beginning it will take weeks if not
months to clear all this
residents are sifting through what's
left of their homes and some like laurie
beck are here to help just because if it
had happened to me i would want people
to come volunteer for me she drove four
hours from the u.p
but most importantly there are still
plenty of people hurt some fighting for
their lives from what i understand we
still have a couple of citizens that are
still
pretty severely injured
boring on critical despite that chief
frank clays knows how much worse this
could have been some of that
thanks to luck
the tornado hit during plea shift change
when the wind stopped whipping and the
rain stopped we had twice as many
officers to flood the street to help
it's nice to get lucky once in a while
and be in a good position on a situation
like this
yeah and that doesn't happen very often
in police work as you can imagine i
wanted to give you a better idea of
exactly how powerful this tornado was so
you saw some homes that were lifted
these mobile homes are bolted and live
on top of steel frames just like this
one and in many cases the steel frames
were tossed around in this case the home
just wiped right off of it somebody
else's home some place they called their
home
doesn't exist anymore and again devin
this is just one example of one area
there are businesses there are more
homes on the other side of m32 the
cleanup
barely beginning yeah in fact nick and
we mentioned it's three days since in
the overall scheme of things that's
still really early in this process but
give me your impressions of the cleanup
so far
you know what's interesting too and you
mentioned it's early in the process
right but when you drive down the main
roads and gaylord all of that is clear
yes you can see the gas station that's
been toppled you can see the oil change
that has been
leveled and kind of crumbled on top of
itself all that destruction exists off
the roads but there have been so many
volunteers in fact we met a tree trimmer
from new orleans who drove all the way
up here just to help so many people that
came out to clear all that debris in
trees so at least the main trunk lines
the main roads could reopen again so it
didn't this town even more no
doubt all right nick we will see you
again on local 4 news at 5. tornadoes of
course rare in northern michigan but the
state as a whole sees an average of 15
of them a year
do you actually remember the steps you
need to take to best protect yourself
and your family paula tupman reviewing
the state's alert system has more on
what you need to do when severe weather
strikes paula
yeah hi devin hi everyone and remember
we're not just talking about tornadoes
we're talking about extreme weather what
a lot of people may not realize is there
are national weather service offices
sprinkled throughout michigan now these
are the guys who know these are the
meteorologists our meteorologists go to
as the source of information they know
whether they know what they're looking
at when they see it and they also know
how to survive it
look at the debris up in the sky way up
high the first rule of thumb for
surviving severe weather is resist the
urge to wonder at it shoot it or talk
about it we saw
that is did you see that tornado because
even those 15 to 30 seconds or more can
be the difference of surviving
especially if it's a tornado what people
don't realize is you see that tornado
with all the debris swirling around the
actual circulation most times is much
larger than that rich pullman is with
the national weather service at that
point it's about minimizing your risk
michigan has an amazing weather alert
system that gives us information in a
number of ways cell phone weather radio
television sirens and any combination of
those everything's programmed so yeah we
hit one enter button it goes through the
national weather service's distribution
system and there are a lot of entities
hooked up to that and and fans out from
there and if you get the tornado warning
don't guess have an in-home plan before
you need it go low as low in your house
as you can possibly go put walls and
framing between you and the storm you
want to protect yourself from falling
debris and the stairs is the sturdiest
part of that basement because of the
framing yeah a closet a hallway where
the bedrooms are off or an interior
bathroom caught outside or on the road
the biggest no feels counterintuitive do
not hide beneath a concrete underpass it
creates a wind tunnel so the wind
actually accelerates underneath there
and so the debris can
still get to you
at a faster wind speed and so it
actually is the worst place to be if
you're caught outside what rich says is
what you can do is look for some sort of
depression like a gully now you're
playing a game of odds if you've got a
blanket or something in your car grab it
lay down as flat as you can possibly go
and then also cover your head
so that you can try to protect yourself
from flying debris but this becomes a
game of odds because a ditch or gully or
even an underground culvert can quickly
fill with water if you can see the
rotation and you can safely back up or
turn around move south at a 90 degree
angle to drive away you get out of the
hail core and out of any wind threat if
you can move to the south
i was talking to one of the
meteorologists just a few moments ago he
happened to be looking at his radar at
four o'clock friday he knew what he was
looking at his heart just dropped here's
the thing you've got to have a plan
you've got to know i would do this if i
was here i would do this or i would not
do this you need to have that plan
before you need it now the national
weather service has a wealth of
information they've got it all laid out
for you we're going to put a link on all
of our social media platforms so you can
go and make your plans so you know what
you're going to do and what you're not
going to do depending on where you are
better chance to survive storms and
extreme weather yeah so right paula and
we're seeing severe weather show up in
places that maybe hadn't seen it before
so more people need a plan than perhaps
have needed one in the past all right
paula we've got more stories come from
gaylord just ahead at five new
eyewitness accounts of being in the
storm's path and the heartbreaking
search for things that really cannot be
replaced then tonight at six some people
had to think fast to survive we'll show
you what they did where they hid to
escape the danger so a lot more to come
but let's shift to the first forecast
quiet and cool right now here in metro
detroit but things could warm up soon
let's check in with brett yeah we are
due for some milder temperatures after a
solid 10 degrees right now below where
we should be this time of the year not
terribly cold but it is cool especially
up near the lake here on shoreline mid
50s at the moment normal high this time
of the year is 73 degrees we'll get back
close to that in the coming days in the
meantime still some clouds out there
kind of a cool thing to see the upper
level clouds are moving from south to
north like this but the low-level clouds
closer to the ground level are actually
moving north to south so a bit of a
shift as you head up throughout the
atmosphere these clouds should start to
fade away as we head through the evening
and that will allow numbers to cool off
and cool off fast but relief is in sight
how about 80's in time for the holiday
weekend the trade-off though more rain
will time it out for you coming up in
just a bit all right
the heartbreak of the oxford high school
shooting still feels very fresh to the
parents of one victim and they are
taking new steps now to fight back the
parents of justin schilling have now
been added to a state lawsuit along with
families of other victims they've also
filed a new federal lawsuit targeting
oxford community schools teachers and
counselors and administrators it focuses
on a suicide prevention program the suit
claims the school failed in its duty to
determine
if the shooter was a threat to himself
or others for schilling's mother the
grief is unrelenting
it's been 174 days
since he was murdered
and it feels like it was just last week
for me there will never be healing there
will only be coping
i will never be the same
of course four students were killed in
the shooting last november and a fellow
student is the one charged in awaiting
trial which will come up in september
pfizer is pushing ahead and seeking
authorization for a cova 19 vaccine
covering younger children drug company
released research results showing its
vaccine offers strong protection for
children
six months of age up to five years of
age it is a three shot program but the
dosage is one-tenth of the amount that
adults receive pfizer says the vaccine
was well tolerated among the more than
sixteen hundred children that they had
in the trial with a preliminary efficacy
rate that's over 80 percent so the
company is going to send the research to
federal regulators for review now later
this week