Calm After the Storm

Four tornadoes were confirmed on Mar. 14 to have hit several towns in Genesee and Shiawassee counties. All but one tornado was confirmed by the National Weather Service as an EF-0. The strongest of the four was an EF-2 tornado that traveled through Vernon, Michigan, causing extensive damage to homes and some businesses in the area. More than 8,000 residents lost power in both counties. No injuries or deaths have been reported at this time.

The past several days have been focused on assessing the amount of damage and clean-up while Consumer’s Energy has been working to restore lost power and fix broken power lines. 

“We’ve been organizing groups to go out into the community to assist in this as well as finding out just what services in particular the people who have been affected by the tornadoes are needing.” said Shiawassee County Sheriff Brian BeGole. 

Days later, residents have been working to clean up the damages from front yards as law enforcement has been going door-to-door to help provide basic needs and other services for families with damage. 

“We want to make sure that they know those services are available and wanna make sure they understand how to get them,” said BeGole. 

“Last thing we want is for them is to be standing in their yards looking on all this destruction and not feeling like that anyone’s not there to help them.”

People who have damage that have not already contacted law enforcement are encouraged to do so at (989) 743-2365.