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Early-season tornadoes hit Michigan towns; no deaths
 
By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

DEXTER, Mich. — The community of Dexter was picking up the pieces last week after a strong tornado ripped through town, uprooting trees and tearing up homes and businesses.

The twister touched down on March 15 about 5:30 p.m., according to the National Weather Service (NWS). It first touched ground around Dexter-Townhall Road several miles northwest of downtown. It stayed on the ground for 7.2 miles, gathering strength as it went along, damaging a golf course located at the Hudson Mills Metropark.

It went through the downtown area and continued east, doing extensive damage to homes east of downtown along Dexter-Ann Arbor Road. It finally lifted at the intersection of Dexter-Ann Arbor and Zeeb roads. Dexter is 60 miles due west of Detroit.
The NWS scored the tornado an EF-3, which means winds of 135-140 miles per hour. Local reports said 100-200 homes were damaged by the tornado, with more than a dozen completely destroyed. A combined Laundromat/car wash business on Central Street was completely destroyed, also. Many trees were uprooted. Luckily, no one was killed and no one seriously injured.
Power was restored to the area on March 17. As of last week Dexter-Pinckney Road, west of downtown, was still closed to through traffic because of downed trees and debris.

“There were so many mature trees there, it was really a problem,” said Loren Yates, captain of the Dexter Fire Department. “For a while, construction crews couldn’t get out there at all. The cleanup is going pretty well.”

Yates said there are three main problem areas: west of the town, especially in the Huron Meadows subdivision; the downtown area itself; and subdivisions east of town. Yates said the downtown doesn’t have much building damage and the large trees that were uprooted have been the biggest problem there.

Amos Dodson, a meteorologist with the NWS, said it’s rare to have a tornado in Michigan this early in the season. “We usually get about the same amount of this type of weather as we move along,” Dodson said. “If we’re getting a head start on it, it probably means it will be an above-average year.”

He said the tornado season usually starts in late April or May and ends in July, though occasionally a tornado will occur in late summer or early fall.

That same day another, weaker twister touched down near Ida in Monroe County, southwest of Detroit. The NWS classified that tornado an EF-0, which means winds of 85 miles per hour. The only reported damage was to the farm of Jerry Montri.

The tornado extensively damaged his home, although it is still standing. It completely destroyed his barn and granary. Montri, along with his wife, Myrna, took shelter in their basement and were physically unharmed.

Jeff Boudrie, a GIS specialist with the Monroe County Planning Department, went out to the Montris’ place last week to take pictures as part of a damage assessment. Boudrie said it’s unclear to him whether the Montris’ home is repairable. He said there’s serious damage.
“It’s remarkable, that house – if it was a new house, I don’t think it would be standing,” Boudrie said. “It’s really a nice old farmhouse. The gentleman who lives there, he was born in it.

“Like I said, they did the right thing: they went into the basement; I don’t think they’d be here today if they hadn’t.”

A third tornado touched down in Lapeer County on March 15, as well. The NWS classified that one an EF-2, which means winds of 125 miles per hour. It touched down near Columbiaville, about five miles northwest of Lapeer. The damage path was 4.5 miles. The twister had a maximum width of 400 yards.

Most of the damage was light, according to the NWS, with uprooted trees and siding blown off houses. The worst damage was to a house that was blown off its foundation.
3/28/2012