Michigan Tornadoes Kill Six; Damage Assessments and Cause Reports Remain Incomplete

Saturday at 9: 14 a. m. ET, at least six people have died and more than a dozen others were injured after tornadoes struck Michigan and Oklahoma, the Branch County sheriff’s department and Okmulgee County emergency. UNCONFIRMED — the full county-by-county fatality breakdown and the complete set of tornado ratings are unconfirmed as of 9: 14 a. m. ET; National Weather Service damage surveys and local tallies will determine those details.

Branch County and Cass County Confirmed Fatalities and Injuries

Confirmed: four people were killed in southern Michigan, with three deaths and 12 injuries reported near Union City by the Branch County sheriff’s department; Cass County reported one death and several injuries. Confirmed: the Cass County sheriff announced that 12-year-old Silas Anderson died from weather-related injuries in Edwardsburg and that he was surrounded by family at the time of his passing. Still, hundreds of residents in the affected Michigan counties were reported without power and local responders have begun search-and-recovery operations in damaged neighborhoods.

Michigan Tornadoes: EF Ratings, Video Evidence, and Structural Damage

Confirmed: the National Weather Service said an initial assessment confirmed an EF3 tornado with winds of at least 240 km/h struck the Union Lake area. INITIAL REPORTS indicate videos showed massive whirlwinds sweeping through Union City and debris moving across public areas. UNCONFIRMED — surveys in other damaged Michigan areas remain pending as of 9: 14 a. m. ET; those surveys will confirm whether additional high-end ratings apply and will quantify structural losses after reports that “multiple large structures — including homes and pole barns — sustained damage ranging from major structural impacts to complete destruction. ” Yet, emergency management teams in Branch and Cass counties are continuing on-the-ground assessments to catalog damage.

National Weather Service Surveys, Emergency Declarations and Okmulgee County Damage Path

Confirmed: two people died in Oklahoma after a tornado in Okmulgee County cut around a 4-mile path of damage, Jeff Moore, the county emergency manager, said; the tornado was blamed for fatalities in Beggs where two people died in a house and two others were hospitalized. Confirmed: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer activated a state emergency for Branch, Cass and St Joseph counties to coordinate resources for affected communities; Oklahoma officials have also freed up state support in response to the damage. Still, UNCONFIRMED — the final fatality totals for each county and the full map of tornadic tracks are unconfirmed as of 9: 14 a. m. ET and will be resolved when National Weather Service teams complete and publish their damage surveys and when county officials release consolidated casualty and damage reports.

What will move the story: confirmed National Weather Service damage-survey reports and county-level consolidated fatality and injury tallies. Emergency management officials have said local responders are continuing searches and recovery work; the National Weather Service has warned that severe weather, including thunderstorms and flash flooding risks, could continue into the weekend across a broad swath of the central U. S. If the National Weather Service confirms additional EF3 ratings in follow-up surveys, then county damage assessments and emergency resource requests are expected to increase within days.