Severe storms that appeared to spawn a rare tornado outbreak in February sent sleepy Midwestern residents scrambling for safety and left a trail of damage and power outages across four Great Lakes states, including suburban Chicago, ending a stretch of summer. . Sometimes temperatures are recorded.
At least nine confirmed or suspected tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio littered roads with fallen trees and branches, tore apart homes and barns, and scattered debris throughout the city and countryside alike. No injuries were reported, despite the timing of the storm at night.
In Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, near Flint, a confirmed tornado — only the second on record for February in that part of the state — damaged subdivisions, uprooted trees and broke gas lines in the early hours of Wednesday. Its strength is rated at EF-2, with peak winds of 115 mph (185 km/h).
Police and firefighters took residents in the area of the gas leak to a fire station, and were allowed to return when a facility made repairs, authorities said.
“There are still numerous reports of downed wires in the area,” police said. He added: “Although there was severe damage to homes in the area, no one was hurt.”
More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, a confirmed tornado damaged homes and barns and downed trees and power lines in Calhoun County, near the city of Marshall, police and weather authorities said.
AP reporter Haya Panjwani reports on severe weather damage in parts of the Great Lakes.
Sirens have central Ohio residents awake with the potential for a tornado near Columbus.
The Carol Essex family — husband Andy, their infant and a 2-year-old — were sleeping in their Columbus home as the storm approached. When they learned of the threat, they ran to hide.
“We got up and went downstairs. We grabbed the kids and came downstairs,” Essex, 29, told the Columbus Dispatch. “It looked like our house collapsed. “I looked at Andy and said, 'Oh my God, we've been hit by a tornado.'”
The storms destroyed a hangar and damaged planes at a small airport in Madison County, between Dayton and Columbus. Fallen trees closed roads in the area until the debris was removed.
At least five other storms in Ohio have been confirmed as tornadoes — in Montgomery and Greene counties in southwestern Ohio; East of Columbus in Franklin and Licking counties; at Hilliard, Franklin County; East of London is in Madison County and ends just southwest of Jefferson; And near Springfield in Clark County. The latter is rated at EF-2 strength.
At one point, more than 50,000 customers were without power in Ohio and Michigan on Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.
In Geneva, in the western suburbs of Chicago, storms uprooted trees and smashed windows and doors in some homes Tuesday evening, Fire Chief Mike Antenor said.
Geneva resident Rebecca Harrington said the storm “tore through” her home and the lobby area collapsed.
“The back of my house is kind of hanging out,” Harrington said. WGN-TVand no injuries were reported.
The storms continued Unusual warmth In most parts of the region in recent days. It was followed on Wednesday by the return of winter weather, with snowfall and temperatures reaching the twenties in some areas.
Weather service teams around the area are trying to confirm tornado reports. One suspected tornado moved through Chicago's southern suburbs — from Calumet City, Illinois, to East Chicago and Gary in northwest Indiana — before heading over Lake Michigan to form a body of water, said Kevin Daum, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The Grand Blanc Township tornado is the second February tornado to hit the section of Michigan covered by the National Weather Service office in Detroit since record keeping began in 1950, following a tornado in Wayne County on Feb. 28, 1974, the service said.
Warm weather and severe storms, including hail up to an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, on Tuesday and Wednesday are unusual for the region this time of year, said Dave Cook, a meteorologist with the Weather Service's Detroit office.
An apartment complex shows roof and structural damage after overnight storms, Wednesday, February 28, 2024, in Mundelein, Illinois. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune via AP)
“This is by no means typical for late February,” he said. “Basically, it's about a month ahead of schedule for Southeast Michigan.”
Robert Trapp, professor and director of the College of Earth, Society and Environment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, agrees that the tornadoes that struck the state in February are “rare, but not unprecedented.”
Trapp said that according to records dating back to 1955, four EF1 tornadoes touched down in the state on February 28, 2017, while an EF2 tornado was recorded on February 28, 1974. March tornadoes are also uncommon, occurring only in 1956, 1961 and 1976. And 1983.
The weather service office covering southwestern and central Ohio has recorded winter tornadoes nearly every year since 2012.
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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield and Corey Williams contributed to this report.
