Severe Thunderstorms Maul Michigan, Killing at Least 6

DETROIT —  Severe thunderstorms tore through Michigan’s Lower Peninsula on Wednesday night, lifting houses off foundations, uprooting trees, toppling power lines and killing at least six people.

Storms also rolled across Indiana and Ohio, where a tornado destroyed some mobile homes and knocked out power in southwest and central parts of the state.

Three children and one adult who had sought shelter under a gazebo in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Farms were killed when the gazebo was blown into Lake St. Clair.

Nine others were rescued from the water, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Nancy Mouradian.

A woman was killed by a falling tree in Flint, where an estimated 50 homes were damaged.

“The damage is probably stretched across eight miles, removing houses off foundations,” said Ken Hardin, chairman of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners.

More than 10 mobile homes were destroyed and at least one person was killed when high wind and heavy rain pummeled a trailer park near Holly, about midway between Detroit and Flint, sheriff’s Capt. Barnett Jones. Fifty more mobile homes were damaged.

One adult was missing late Wednesday, Jones said. Several people were injured, but none seriously.

The National Weather Service received unconfirmed reports of at least 12 tornado touchdowns throughout Michigan, forecaster David Koehler said.

In the Detroit enclaves of Hamtramck and Highland Park, numerous buildings were damaged and some were destroyed, while along Interstate 75 in Hamtramck the water level rose as high as car windshields.

“We have officers now trying to go through the streets trying to make sure everyone’s OK,” Sheriff Robert Ficano told WXYZ-TV.

On the east side of Detroit, witnesses said what appeared to be a tornado lifted a house off its foundation and tossed it several feet into an alley.

One resident, Timothy Petty, said he and another man helped a woman out of the entrance of what used to be her basement stairs.

“I was scared to death,” Petty said. “I’ve been in Detroit for 32 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

In Highland Park, scores of trees were slashed in half while others were uprooted, tearing up sidewalks and crushing houses and cars, making roads impassable.

More than 100,000 customers throughout southeastern Michigan had lost power by early evening, said May Kay Bean, a spokeswoman for Detroit Edison.

At Tiger Stadium in Detroit, the storm blew large sections of tar paper from the left-field roof out onto the field less than an hour after Detroit’s game against the New York Mets ended.