Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes killed five people, including a 12-year-old boy, in southern Michigan and two in eastern Oklahoma, reduced homes to rubble and caused damage.
In Michigan, a 12-year-old boy died after succumbing to weather-related injuries. The boy’s parents called 911 to report they couldn’t find their son as the tornado hit the area, and the parents were giving him first aid by the time first responders arrived.
Three people have been killed and 12 injured after a tornado touched down in the Union Lake area near Union City, Michigan, according to the Branch County Sheriff’s Office. About 50 miles to the southwest, Cass County officials reported one death and several injuries after a tornado touched down.
Tornado sirens blared when Tyler Kramer arrived at work at Menards, a home improvement store in Three Rivers, Michigan. The clouds fell, the wind picked up, and Kramer said he and his colleagues headed for a sheltered area of the store.
“Right when it hit as we were running, the skylights started exploding. You could watch all the doors come out of the building,” Kramer told NBC News. “You could see the aisles, and we watched the garden center on the far side of the store basically disappear.”
From a sheltered area, Kramer, other employees and customers watched entire sections of the store. Cramer said the tornado’s wave of total destruction felt like it lasted only 30 seconds. “It’s hit and gone so quickly,” he said.
A tornado in Beggs, Oklahoma, south of Tulsa, left two people dead at a home, the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office said.
Storms hit a wide swath of the nation’s center, triggering tornado warnings and watches from Oklahoma to Iowa to Michigan. Fifteen primary tornadoes were reported Friday across Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas.
In southern Michigan on Friday, at least one tornado was confirmed near Union City and there were possible other reports, according to the National Weather Service.
Officials in Branch County, Michigan have updated that they hope to complete ongoing recovery operations tonight.
According to David Roth, a meteorologist at the Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, a weather system that pulled moisture from the Gulf and a warm front that moved north created ideal conditions for tornadoes in the relatively rare state. The system encountered much colder air in the Great Lakes region.
Michigan gets an average of 15 tornadoes a year, compared to 155 for Texas and 96 for Kansas, he said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer posted on X that a state of emergency will be declared for Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties after the severe weather and the state is coordinating resources for those affected.
Whitmer activated the state’s Emergency Operations Center on Friday to “coordinate an all-hands-on-deck response to severe weather,” he said in a statement.
The extreme weather extended beyond Michigan
County emergency manager Jeff Moore said the tornado cut a 4-mile path of damage in Okmulgee County, including Beggs, about 30 miles south of Tulsa. Big trees were uprooted and there was power outage. Officials said that two people have died and two others have been hospitalized.
“We’re going everywhere as fast as we can, clearing the roads as fast as we can,” Moore said.
Oklahoma homeowner James Hall was on his porch watching the storm roll in when he realized he had no choice but to evacuate.
Hall said he couldn’t hear any sirens and simply watched as the tornado approached before grabbing his children and leaving their home. After the storm, a mountain of debris surrounded what was left of his home, including a car crushed under a torn roof.
After the tornado, John Baucom of Beggs, Oklahoma, was standing in his driveway when he saw some significant damage to his property, particularly to his shed. “Now my shop, it’s up in the trees. It’s down the road, it’s all over the place,” Baucom said.
Baucom was at a local shelter with his two dogs when the storm hit his property, including an RV that was flipped and flipped around by the tornado.
Suspected tornado damage was reported in parts north of Tulsa.
In an eerie scene captured on video Thursday, a first responder ran straight into the storm near the western Oklahoma town of Fairview, where a flash of lightning lit up a giant funnel that appeared to reach the ground. That storm, among the first outbreaks of severe weather on the brink of the spring hurricane season, was filmed by a deputy’s car-mounted camera.
Nearby, a 47-year-old Fairview woman and her 13-year-old daughter were found dead in a vehicle near the intersection of the highway and County Road around 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
“I am praying for the family grieving this tragic loss and for all those affected by the storm,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Friday.
On Saturday morning, Stitt declared a state of emergency for eight counties due to severe weather, tornadoes and flooding.
Kevin Turner said he lives across the street from where the mother and daughter were found. Taking shelter in his basement with his family, Turner said he became aware of the tornado after seeing flashes of light from lost power and lightning and a blue-green tint to the sky.
About five minutes later, he emerged to see the damage. “I’ve got some collapsed barns and as you can see, there’s a lot of debris, and I may have lost a couple of cows,” Turner said..
Communities across Oklahoma have come together to support cleanup efforts and help neighbors whose homes have been destroyed.
Darren Dean in Bristow, Oklahoma, was helping his daughter clean up his house when he realized the road damage was more severe at her neighbor’s house. Dean’s daughter was “lucky,” he said, but the others “lost everything.”
One neighbor’s insulation was caught in the trees. “I think his whole house spread across the lawn and made it into the trees,” Dean told NBC News. Dean said the community has a big task ahead of them to clean up and rebuild the neighborhood.
The risk of severe storms will continue through the weekend
The National Weather Service said strong storms and flash flooding risks extended from the Great Lakes to Texas on Saturday. A tornado watch was issued for most of Arkansas and parts of Texas and Louisiana.
As spring storms near the start of tornado season, which begins at different times in different parts of the U.S., experts recommend some simple safety measures to take before tornadoes hit, including a weather radio and planning where to take shelter.
Weather began to ease in some parts of the Northeast on Friday, but Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut remained under a weather advisory.
In parts of the southern US, the weather pattern is expected to produce the warmest temperatures for this time of year by the weekend.
“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, reaching the 80s north of the Ohio Valley and parts of the mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily documents can spread widely.”
