Four deaths reported, thousands without power in Michigan, as a result of Sunday's severe weather
Severe weather that pushed through Lower Michigan Sunday resulted in thousands of power outages along with three deaths in the Kalamazoo area and one death near Stockbridge.
Three fatalities happened when a tree fell on a car Sunday evening in Climax Township in Kalamazoo County. WWMT TV reported three people in the vehicle were killed, and three other family members who were also in the vehicle were injured. The three people who were killed have been identified by the Kalamazoo County sheriff as a 2-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl. The 2- and 4-year-olds were siblings, and the 11-year-old was their cousin, the sheriff said.
Additionally, the Ingham County Sheriff's Office confirmed on Monday that a 56-year-old man was killed after a tree fell on his home in Stockbridge Township.
Other damage in West Michigan included the roof blown off Beach Elementary School in Fruitport. Classes were canceled for Monday at that campus, the superintendent reported.
The storms, which resulted in a mix of tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings in mid-and lower Michigan, rolled through the lower part of southern Michigan during the evening hours. The tornado warnings issued in Michigan included one for part of Livingston County.
Although there was no tornado warning issued in Wayne County, local residents might have heard emergency sirens pulled for the weather. The city of Dearborn activated its sirens for a severe thunderstorm warning as winds were possibly going to reach 70 mph, Dearborn Police said in a social media post.
As of 9:10 p.m. Sunday, over 28,000 DTE Energy customers were without service. That number had improved to 21,000 customers by 11:45 a.m. Monday, according to the company's outage map. DTE provides electricity in most of southeast Michigan; the power outage spots include locations in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Howell and Belleville.
Consumers Energy's outage map early Monday also showed pockets of power outages for its customers in Chelsea, Plainfield and Dansville along with other locations across the state.
Damage reports submitted to the National Weather Service Sunday evening included trees down in Oakland, Macomb and Lapeer counties. Numerous large trees also were blown down in Belleville as a result of the storm.
There were some school closings for Monday as a result of the power outages, that list included some Summit Academy buildings in Wayne County.
Latest school closing and delays for Southeast Michigan
Delays on this page are current as of
Ice storm in Northern Michigan
In the meantime, residents of Northern Lower Michigan were pummeled by an ice storm over the weekend. Freezing rain moved through that region Saturday.
At one point this weekend, over 300,000 customers were without power because of the ice.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center Sunday to help with recovery efforts.
