One of the reasons the Snowbirds travel North when they do is to be away from the South during hurricane season. Although I worry about a cousin and his family in North Carolina and a daughter living on the Jersey Shore, we usually just see hurricanes on The Weather Channel. Our town in Florida was hit badly a few years ago in September, but we didn't arrive on the scene until January.
So imagine my surprise when, just as we were concerned about a daughter in New Jersey, our little Michigan town was struck with a storm, the likes of which we had never seen.
We were in the truck headed out of town to pick up a granddaughter from school for her "Special Day" with the Grands. It JUST started sprinkling as we left the driveway. As we crossed the first bridge the wind was so strong that there were little water spouts and white caps on the canals. Four blocks further and we could hardly see through the rain. Before we had gone a mile we had to pull over. He NEVER pulls over!
We figured if we just got on the highway we would be able to see. Nope! I called daughter to arrange for the granddaughter to be picked up and we waited out the storm in a bar parking lot. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.
As we reentered town we could see amazing damage. A swath about two blocks wide from the high school, East to the River...wind-whipped and damaged.
WEATHER SERVICE REPORT:
..DAMAGE SURVEY COMPLETED IN SOUTHERN WAYNE COUNTY...A STRONG STORM PASSED THROUGH THE DOWNRIVER COMMUNITIES THURSDAY AFTERNOON BETWEEN 230 PM AND 245 PM. AN NWS TEAM SURVEYED THE AREA THIS MORNING AND FOUND THE DAMAGE TO BE THE RESULT OF STRONG STRAIT LINE WINDS. THE DAMAGE BEGAN IN THE WESTERN GOLF CLUB NEAR SOUTH ROCKWOOD. ..WHERE DAMAGE WAS CONSISTENT WITH WIND GUSTS OF 70 MPH. THE DAMAGE PATH THEN WIDENED TO THE NORTHEAST THROUGH ROCKWOOD AND GIBRALTAR WHERE THE DEGREE OF DAMAGE SUGGESTED WIND GUSTS OF 60 TO65 MPH. THE FACT THAT THE WINDS DECREASED IN SPEED AS THE DAMAGE PATH FANNED OUT IS CONSISTENT WITH STRONG THUNDERSTORM OUTFLOW OR STRAIT LINE WINDS. THERE WAS QUITE A BIT OF TREE DAMAGE ALONG THIS PATH AND THE ROOFS WERE BLOWN OFF OR HEAVILY DAMAGED ON TWO GARAGES AND A POLE BARN.
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| The worst damage was to this house, garage and yard by the Baptist church |
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| A collapsed garage resting on a vehicle |
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| A utility pole on the ground and holes in the church roof |
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| A large tree branch on a roof-damaged |
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| Broken branch causing roof damage |
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| Another large part of a tree in a front yard |
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| A large evergreen broken off |
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| Uprooted tree has lifted a slab of sidewalk |
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6:25 PM | 
Posted by
Gabby Faye |
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