Richard Tye was having a party at his house on Sherman Court around 5 p.m. on Sunday when his wife yelled for the nine kids that were in their pool to get out.
Tye and his son, Chris, watched as black clouds rolled in.
‘Trees were spinning and the clouds were swirling,? said Chris. ‘We were running to the house and it felt like we were running in place.?
‘If that wasn’t a tornado, I don’t ever want to see one,? added Richard on Monday as he stood in his yard, amidst the noise of chainsaws and generators in the neighborhood.
But Heather Orow, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in White Lake, said that what the Tyes saw was not a tornado, but a squall line of thunderstorms.
‘The leading edge of the squall line is where the strongest winds are and a shelf cloud will proceed it,? she said. ‘They look similar to wall clouds, which is what you see proceeding a tornado and the shelf cloud hangs down and marks the line where the really strong winds are. It doesn’t rotate, but it does look scary coming at you.?
That the storm was not a tornado does not make the danger the Tyes and other local families faced Sunday any less. In fact, Orow said, more people in southeast Michigan are injured or killed by strong thunderstorm winds than by tornados.
‘Most tornados in this area are weak and strong thunderstorm winds exceed the wind speeds of tornados,? she explained.
The highest recorded wind gust in Oakland County on Sunday was 64 mph in Troy at about 5:14 p.m., but the NWS estimates several areas saw winds of 70-80 mph, based on tree damage, and isolated areas could have seen 90 mph.
The NWS received the first damage reports from Ortonville just before 5 p.m., including a tree down on a truck a quarter-mile north of Grange Hall Road and a visitor dugout blown away at a baseball field.
On Sherman Court, John Sullivan and Kim Jones were sitting on their porch when the storm hit. They watched as the wind picked up their trampoline and moved it. A tree also fell on their camper and their snowmobile trailer was flattened.
Next door, Steve Thrift had just let his dog out. He noticed the air conditioner making a strange noise and said there was a brown out.
‘I ran out to unhook the dog and it hit,? said Thrift. ‘It came up fast.?
He didn’t stick around outside to watch the destruction, but it was extensive. A tree crushed his son’s Bonneville and two other trees left their mark, one on his pole barn, the other landing on his shed. A fourth tree next to the fence has been partially uprooted and leans toward a camper on Sullivan’s property.
In front of Tye’s home the day after, yellow caution tape surrounds a tree the top of which has been sheared off, as well as downed power lines. A DTE Energy employee was standing guard until crews could arrive to repair the damage.
The Sherman Court homes were among 200 DTE customers in the village that lost power due to weekend storms; they were joined by 300 customers in Groveland Township and 2,700 in Brandon Township without power, said Scott Simons, DTE spokesman. Overall, Oakland County had 151,000 customers affected and 350,000 customers were affected in southeast Michigan. Areawide, more than 3,000 power lines were down.
In the village, besides Sherman Court, power lines were also down in the 2600 block of Perry Lake Road, the 100 block of Windfall Trail, the 3500 block of Grape Vine and the 2600 block of Oak Trail.
Brandon Fire Department personnel responded to trees down across roads throughout the township. Chief Bob McArthur said it was fortunate it was a Sunday afternoon, as many people were at home and used their chainsaws to help clear trees; however, with downed power lines, firefighters were limited to guarding the lines until DTE crews arrived to make sure no one got near them. The fire department was assisted by members of the Community Emergency Response Team, who McArthur called ‘great support.?
CERT leader Lee Stewart said 18 members answered a call to help and stayed near the five locations guarding power lines until about 1 a.m. Monday.
‘I was really happy with the turnout,? he said. ‘Some of these people had just got home from work and were willing to stay and had to go back to work Monday morning. These are folks with dedication. I’m really pleased.?
In Goodrich, the high school was closed on June 9 due to a lightning strike that blew out the school’s fire supression system. Without the alarm control panel working, which operates the sprinklers and the fire alarm, Goodrich Fire Chief Fred Forys stepped in and said the district would be required to close the school. The control panel was fixed and school resumed the next day.
Goodrich Village Street Administrator Pete Morey said, ‘We lost a lot of trees. The fire department asked us to put up barricades and close the roads on several streets. There was a power pole leaning over on Ridge and Huron Roads. We also closed the roads at Seneca and Erie because the power lines were arching. I was surprised to see how many people moved our barricades and traveled through anyway. If there is a barricade, don’t go through, you are risking your life.?
Simons said DTE expected to have 90 percent of its customers restored to power by Thursday night.
‘Our number one priority is keeping customers safe from downed power lines and we will send a safety crew member out until we can repair the power line or deenergize the power line. We had a technical problem with phone lines that we resolved with Verizon. We urge all our customers who were unable to get through to call again and report downed lines or power outages.?
To notify DTE Energy of a problem, call 800-477-4747 or visit their website at my.dteenergy.com.