Three tornadoes confirmed in southeast Michigan Tuesday night
FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJBK) - The National Weather Service confirms a total of three tornado touched down in southeast Michigan Tuesday night.
The National Weather Service confirms an EF1 tornado in Frenchtown Township in Monroe County, an EF0 touched down in Berlin Twp, and EF1 touched down in Gibraltar.
The NWS says the Frenchtown tornado had a path length of 4.3 miles and was about 300 yards wide. Estimated peak winds were between 95-100 mph. Touch down was confirmed from 8:23 p.m. - 8:32 p.m. The NWS has not provided more information on the other two tornadoes.
A tornado warning was issued in Monroe County around 8:20 p.m. and a tornado warning was issued for part of Wayne County about a half hour later. The warning for both counties expired around 9:20 p.m. Severe weather was possible, though, until about midnight.
The NWS says the tornado started as a weaker EF0, but reached EF1 strength near Toben and South Stony Creek Roads in Frenchtown Township.
Crews were surveying what certainly was a trail of destruction Wednesday morning in Gibraltar. Homes were seen missing siding and parts of their roofs. Sheds were destroyed. Trampolines were overturned and trees were toppled. Power outages were also reported. Clean up will take days, maybe even weeks.
"You could hear, like, the sounds of a jet engine, just whirring," Frenchtown Township resident Don Marcero told us about the storm. "It made that turbine sound and I said, we got to go. So we headed to the basement and we were probably in there no more than 15 seconds and you could just hear it hit. You could hear the trees popping, stuff hitting the house. I mean, it was really quick, no more than a minute. One minute and it was just gone."
The weather service says about 1.2 inches of rain fell at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus in only an hour during Tuesday's storms. The Michigan Department of Transportation reported standing water on the John C. Lodge Freeway, on Detroit's west side.