Two killed, dozens hurt as rare tornado strikes Michigan

GAYLORD (Michigan) • Two people died and dozens were injured when a tornado hit far northern Michigan last Friday, striking a mobile home park before tearing a three-block hole through the small city of Gaylord.

"It all just flashed before my eyes," said Mr Logan Clayton, 18, who was at home in the Nottingham Forest mobile home park, where the deaths were reported, when the winds became so intense that one window shattered.

He recalled seeing "someone getting picked up, trailers getting picked up. It all just happened within 10 seconds and then it was gone".

As cleanup began last Saturday, and as more than 40 people were treated for injuries, officials struggled to make sense of the damage in a region where tornadoes are rare. One person remained unaccounted for, and crews were searching through wreckage from the EF3 tornado, which the National Weather Service said had maximum winds of 225kmh.

"We were calling them out by name, trying to see if they were still in their damaged homes," said Mr Frank Claeys, chief of the Gaylord Police Department.

"And when you see that, it's a lot more personal when our officers know the names of people who live in those homes."

Forecasters had warned of the potential for severe weather last Friday, but the tornado that hit Gaylord, population 4,300, still came suddenly. A severe thunderstorm warning issued in the afternoon was quickly upgraded to a tornado warning.

The city, which is roughly 370km north-west of Detroit, has no tornado sirens, officials said, but people in the area were alerted to the storm by emergency notifications on their cellphones. Within minutes, a tornado was on the ground, tearing apart the mobile homes and then charging across city limits from west to east.

Vehicles were tossed on top of one another in a carpark. A truck was upended. The roofs of several businesses collapsed.

"This storm went a lot of places and did a lot of damage - hit a lot of homes, the commercial corridor," said Lieutenant-Governor Garlin Gilchrist, a Democrat, who visited Gaylord on Saturday.

Over 40 people were treated at hospitals for their injuries, and officials said it was possible that others were hurt but had not sought medical help. So many people needed care that patients were diverted to other hospitals in the region as one in Gaylord filled up.

Meanwhile, a thunderstorm that nearly packed the power of a tornado rolled through Ontario last Saturday, killing at least four people and left parts of Canada's most populous province without power, the authorities said.

Emergency crews were inundated with calls after the storm uprooted many trees, disrupting traffic and damaging homes.

Police said one person died and two others were injured after a tree fell on their camping trailer in Brant County, southern Ontario, while a woman in her 70s died after being hit by a tree during the thunderstorm.

In the federal capital Ottawa, another person was killed by the storm, but local police declined to give further details. The fourth victim was a woman in her 50s. She drowned when her boat capsized in the Ottawa River, which separates Ottawa and Quebec, during the storm, CBC reported, citing local police.

More than 340,000 customers were without power due to the severe storms, Hydro One, Ontario's largest utility said, adding that more resources have been deployed to restore power caused by extensive damage.

NYTIMES, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE