Gaylord — At least one person was killed and 44 others injured after a cyclone swept through the Gaylord area on Friday afternoon and damaged many homes and businesses, state and local officials said.
Ambulances took the wounded to local hospitals, according to Michigan State Police. However, the Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord was referring patients to medical centers in nearby cities because it lost electricity and was running on generated power Friday evening.
Modernization: The death toll in Hurricane Gaylord has now reached two, while the fate of a third has not been calculated
Brian Lawson, a health care spokesman for Monson, said Otsego Memorial had 23 tornado patients Friday night, a number later confirmed by state police. In addition, there were 12 patients at Grayling Hospital, eight at McLaren Northern Michigan Petoskey, and one at Monson Medical Center in Traverse City, state police wrote on Twitter.
Lawson said Friday he had no details of who was killed or the conditions of those hurt by the tornado that smashed through Gaylord City, which has a population of about 4,200. Otsego Memorial is part of the Munson Health Care System.
Lawson said the pace of people being taken to Gaylord Otsego Memorial Hospital has slowed since the hours immediately following the storm.
He said, “From what I gathered, things settled down a little.”
Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Otsego County, where Gaylord is located. This measure allows for the use of state resources along with the local response and recovery efforts.
Whitmer posted a message on Twitter Friday evening in response to the devastation: “My heart goes out to the families and small businesses affected by the hurricane and severe weather in Gaylord,” Whitmer wrote. “To the entire Gaylord community – Michigan is with you. We will do whatever it takes to rebuild.”
State police said officials had placed an overnight curfew and set up shelter, and the Red Cross was working to set up a shelter at E-Free Church in Gaylord.
“Due to the ongoing state of emergency in Gaylord, residents are requested to take shelter in their places,” the state police wrote on Twitter, adding that the city imposed a 7pm curfew that is expected to end at 8am on Saturday.
The agency previously reported that trees and power lines had blocked roads. Officials warned residents to avoid the area as emergency crews responded.
“We had a hell of a tornado and it did a lot of damage,” said Gaylord City Council member Vic Owlette of a local hospital.
Other residents who were inspecting the damage were shocked to see how their neighbourhoods were.
“All I have to say is that the town is a mess,” said Amy Neuwirth, a Gaylord resident. “Businesses destroyed, cars overturned, trees felled on several streets. Just destroyed.”
The National Weather Service confirmed the hurricane’s occurrence just before 4 p.m. Friday: “At 354 p.m. EDT, a confirmed tornado occurred over Spar, or near Gaylord, moving eastward at 55 mph,” NWS reported in a notice.
Based on witness reports, the tornado is believed to have made landfall “somewhere between a movie theater and Hobby Lobby” in west Gaylord and then left within about 15 minutes, said Jim Keysor, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station there.
He said a weather service storm team was assessing the damage Friday. “They are trying to plot all of that and determine the maximum damage they have observed along that path.”
Consumer Energy has mobilized nearly 100 crews to respond, spokeswoman Ronisha Mullen said. “Crews are currently assessing the damage and restoring power because it is safe to do so. As of 7:30 pm, there are about 12,000 customers currently without power,” she said Friday evening.
Mullen said the company’s mobile command center and materials trailer are moving into the hardest-hit area to give crews more resources.
“Crews have been assigned to restore power, but may face some delays due to severe damage and limited access,” she said.
Hospital on generator power
Consumer Energy reported that 14,000 customers were without power in northern Michigan Friday due to severe weather.
She added that Gaylord Hospital was not damaged by the cyclone, but cut power lines and closed roads made it difficult for patients to reach the medical site.
The hospital said in an alert posted on its Facebook page that the hospital is using a generator while continuing to care for its existing patients.
Monsoon Healthcare called on additional staff and coordinated with first response and emergency management agencies in District 7.
The hospital has asked residents to avoid the hospital campus and stay safe where they are. She added that if someone had a life-threatening emergency, they should call 911.
The Michigan Department of Transportation posted on Twitter that the tornado struck near a Home Depot store in the west end of Gaylord. “The damage caused debris to be scattered on nearby roads, including the M-32. Drivers/pedestrians in that area, please use caution.”
MDOT also posted that exits on the M-32 of Interstate 75 going north and south, and exits 282, were closed due to debris. Gaylord town center is located west of the exits.
‘It’s like the movies’
At first, Hurricane wasn’t impressed by Nolan Curtis. He saw its outline and leaves blowing in the air, but it didn’t look strong. He’s even walked out of the truck repair shop where he’s recording the storm with his mobile phone.
Only later, when he and his friends drove half a mile down the road, did they realize how devastating the hurricane was. That’s when they spotted overturned vehicles and buildings without roofs.
“I was thinking it wasn’t a big deal until I saw the damage,” he said.
What Curtis, 18, witnessed, was originally just the outskirts of the storm. As he and his friends walked away from their shop, they began to see more debris, first branches, then rubbish, then severe damage.
He said he felt lucky that the storm didn’t come close to the store.
“I am very grateful that none of our buildings were damaged,” he said.
Celeste Violi was picking up food from Arby’s car on Main Street with her three children when she received an emergency notification of a hurricane.
“As I was leaving, I started to see debris flying. It started getting darker and darker. Then the wind got stronger and stronger,” Fayol said. “That’s when I saw the big vortex in my rearview mirror.”
That, and sparks from what appeared to be a fallen transformer somewhere down the street, prompted Feole to rush home southeast of her Jeep Wrangler as the Funnel Cloud whirled far north.
“It was very scary,” the photographer said. “It’s like the movies.”
Feole and her children arrived safely at home, several miles from downtown, but she was concerned about her husband, David, whom she was facing when the hurricane hit. He was working for a company within walking distance of the Hobby Lobby where meteorologists believed the tornado landed hard first. Fortunately, the building only sustained minor damage while the other building was flattened, she said. He couldn’t get home until about 8 pm
The family is grateful that their home escaped the damage but they fear for the community. While residents have been affected by inflation, gas prices and other problems, she said, “we are doing a great job helping each other. I just know we’re going to rebuild. There will be a lot of support.”
As night fell, firefighters were clearing the rubble and keeping an eye on the streets littered with fallen power lines. The state police closed most of the city’s major roads to traffic and downtown streets were empty after the curfew came into effect.
The sound of chain saws and generators blew through the air, and rain fell as Gaylord’s lifelong resident James Duffield sat on his balcony with his black lab, watching the chaos.
Duffield’s house was not damaged, but the trees on his street were shattered and he was left without power. He said it looked like the hurricane came “suddenly”. Within a minute, he said, there was a mysterious alert on his phone warning of a tornado, and within seconds, it looked like it had arrived, he said.
“They don’t tell you where the hurricane is going to hit,” said the 67-year-old. As soon as the alarm hit his phone, he heard a “wind like a freight train.”
Jamie and Andrew Zuk stood in the dark on their front porch Friday night, both smoking a cigarette and holding light sticks in front of their home on the east side of Gaylord.
The couple were inside their home when a storm quickly swept through their neighborhoods. Across the street, a garage has been settled.
“Once she showed up, it’s over, holy cow,” said Andrew, 38.
They were lucky, their house was not damaged, but they just received news that a person died in the west side of the city.
“Unfortunately, we learned that someone didn’t work out,” Jaime said.
The couple moved to Gaylord from the Detroit suburbs 18 months ago in search of a quieter, less crowded area.
“We didn’t expect anything like this,” she said.
rare hurricane
The Weather Service issued a hurricane warning for northeastern Otsego County and northwestern Montmorency County until 4:30 p.m. Friday, mainly in rural areas, and on Presque Isle Harbor, Posen, and Presque Isle until 5 p.m.
The weather service said on Twitter that an area of strong storms crossed Grand Traverse Bay as a cold front advanced through the area.
NWS records showed temperatures soared to the mid-80s on Friday afternoon, or nearly 10 degrees above average for this date.
“The air was warm, humid, and fairly humid,” Kesor said. “We had a fairly strong cold front coming in from Wisconsin and it had cold air behind it. Those air masses collided over Michigan and we had a shift in the winds into the atmosphere, which…gave us everything we needed, an element-wise that Hurricane happens.”
Kisor said such an event is rare in Gaylord.
“We never had a hurricane actually hit Gaylord. You can look back at records going back to 1950,” he said. “The last major severe weather event with direct impact was in September 1998, when there was significant damage with straight line winds of 100 mph.”
The Associated Press contributed.