Storms packing damaging winds spawn tornado in Michigan

The National Weather Service warned people about risky swimming conditions up and down the Lake Michigan coast, with waves as high as 6 feet.

A 47-year-old motorist had multiple injuries a tree fell on his auto in Leelanau County. Authorities say rescuers carried him to a boat, which took him across Glen Lake to an ambulance.

Traverse City Light and Power and Cherryland Electric Cooperative also had customers without electricity.

“As you turned around, nearly like a domino effect, it just started getting worse”, he said. Other smaller, sporadic outages are reported across the city. CMS Energy Corp.’s Consumers Energy Unit said more than 150,000 were affected by Sunday’s weather, with the most damage in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties.

More than two inches of rain fell, which followed a dry July, which left the ground hard and unable to absorb much of the water, the National Weather Service told The Associated Press. Some of those areas may not see power restored until Thursday afternoon.

“About 70 linemen from Ohio and Indiana will join 500 DTE linemen with the restoration effort”.

Wind damage also knocked out the power for over 60,000 DTE customers.

The DTE Energy outage map shows about 550 customers without power Monday morning, including a small pocket near Ann Arbor Trail and Eckles, a pocket which spans into neighboring Plymouth Township as well. The storms began rolling across northern Michigan earlier in the day Sunday, at one point forcing the closure of the Mackinac Bridge as winds hit 65 miles per hour.