'I've never heard anything like that before:' Lansing homes damaged by straight-line winds overnight

LANSING — East side residents woke Thursday morning to uprooted trees and damaged property after a storm containing 60- to 70-mph winds tore through mid-Michigan.

Portions of Clemens, Regent and Leslie streets were closed Thursday morning as city crews and residents began assessing and clearing the damage.

Residents described intense wind around midnight that ceased shortly after, downing power lines and leaving areas of the neighborhood impassable.

Many residents said they thought the howling wind was a tornado.

“I've never heard anything like that before,” said Melissa Horste, who lives on Regent Street. The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch Wednesday night for 20 Michigan counties, including Ingham. Reports of a twister were made near Colon, about 30 miles south of Battle Creek, and the federal agency was sending survey crews to the area.

Jim Maczko, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Grand Rapids office, said the winds were likely "non-tornadic."

"Today, we've not had any information come in that would lead us to believe that there was a tornado there," he said. "But certainly, 60-70 mile per hour winds — that's the equivalent of an EF0 tornado on the wind damage scale. So it's very similar type of winds — it just would be moving in a straight line versus moving in a circle and the damage can look fairly similar."

Maczko said that straight-line winds can cause more damage than low end tornadoes.

"Lansing was certainly among one of the hardest-hit in west Michigan and central Michigan," he said. Maczko said NWS surveyors hadn't been to the Lansing area, but their office has been coordinating with local emergency authorities.

The winds nearly snapped a utility pole on Leslie Street. As of Thursday morning, the tip of the pole was tilted nearly across the street.

JT Stout, who lives on Leslie Street, said a pole began to tip around 2 a.m. The Lansing Board of Water and Light arrived about 4 a.m. and proactively shut power off in the area, leaving about 220 homes around Leslie Street without power. Stout said crews estimated the power will be restored by Thursday evening.

Throughout Lansing, more than 400 BWL customers were left without power Thursday morning, according to the department's outage map.

No injuries as neighbors pitch in the help

Residents they didn’t know of any injuries in the neighborhood.

Most houses escaped without significant property damage, but some weren’t so lucky.

One Robert Lozier's homes, he owns three on Shepard Street, had a wall sustain significant damage, leaving the ground level exposed and upper level without siding.

Lozier said he was refurbishing the house and was grateful he and his neighbors hadn’t sustained any injuries.

“It’s only things,” he said.

Lozier said the house was being used for storage and nobody was in it at the time. His other houses sustained significant damage to their roofs.

Leslie Street resident Elizabeth Tuttle described feeling comforted by the rain and storm sounds early last night, before the weather quickly turned extreme.

Tuttle ran into the basement with her partner and cats. She heard banging against the house, which turned out to be her neighbor’s shed, which ended up several homes away after slamming into her home.

Once the storm subsided and she went outside, Tuttle said she saw “total chaos.” Parts of Tuttle’s fence had collapsed, along with a window that came off of its hinges. Her yard was littered with several recycling bins that didn’t belong to her and a large tree branch missed her car by mere inches.

Despite many experiencing some form of debris or damage on their property, residents of the neighborhood banded together Thursday morning to make sure everyone had the bare necessities.

“People are checking in on each other,” Horste said. “That's what I love about this neighborhood — people are so welcoming and concerned. And so it's been really heartwarming because people care about each other.”

“Good folks here,” she added. “This is a really traumatic event, but people are stepping in and helping each other out.”

Stout set up a small table with portable charging stations and coffee from the nearby Strange Matter coffee shop.

Stout had been up since 6 a.m. using his chainsaw to help clear tree branches and debris.

“He's kind of the unofficial mayor of our street,” Tuttle said. Residents were grateful for their neighborhood’s community efforts and they and several other regions in Lansing assess damage and deal with power outages.

In East Lansing, a canopy that had covered fuel pumps at the Marathon gas station on the corner of Harrison and Trowbridge roads was toppled in the overnight storm.

Heavy rain, wind and outages

Consumers Energy reported scattered outages in the Lansing area, including about 40 customers south of Bath Township, another 113 near Haslett and 351 in the Laingsburg area. DTE reported about 90 customers affected from Williamston to Webberville.

Heavy rain caused several temporary road closures overnight. Capitol Region International Airport recorded 2.78 inches over a six-hour period up to about 2 a.m., the National Weather Service reported on its website. The NWS updated Thursday morning that the wider Lansing area had experienced 2.54 inches of rain. That included 4.67 inches in Laingsburg and 3.95 inches in Grand Ledge, the agency said.

In addition, Schultz said there was heavy rainfall — between 3 and 4 inches — in Grand Blanc and Armada.

The Michigan Department of Transportation reported closing portions of Interstate 496 in Lansing near the Pennsylvania Avenue exit, and U.S. 127 near Kalamazoo and Saginaw streets because of water over the road. Those closures later ended.

As of about 7 a.m., DTE and Consumers said about 15,000 customers, 6,200 and 9,300, respectively, were without power across the state, but they were working to make repairs.

Tornadoes spotted in some places

National Weather Service Meteorologist Sara Schultz in White Lake Township said it appeared a tornado touched down in Colon, which reportedly damaged several barns. It also, according to news alerts may, have ripped a roof of a home. The weather service is planning to survey damage there.

Before the storm line reached Michigan, a tornado also touched down Wednesday near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. It prompted passengers to take shelter and disrupted hundreds of flights. However, there were no initial reports of injuries, and the weather service said more tornadoes hit northern Indiana.

Quieter day Thursday

"The weather today will start out much quieter than how Wednesday finished up," the National Weather Service Grand Rapids office said on its website.

"Temperatures will remain mild with highs in the 70s. A few showers and storms could pop up this afternoon inland from Lake Michigan. More widespread showers and storms will be likely late Friday night into Saturday," the NWS said.

Detroit Free Press reporter Frank Witsil contributed.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Homes on Lansing's east side damaged overnight by 'straight-line winds'