We begin with team coverage tonight of the severe weather that spawned at least two tornadoes in the Kalamazoo area last night. Less than an hour ago though the National weather service announced one of them was an EF two tornado that was on the ground for 11 miles. It knocked down thousands of trees is damaging more than 100 50 buildings. County leaders held a news conference to give an update on the damage and the response 13 on your side's Julia Gorman was there. She joins us now live from Portage and Julia. They were saying after all of the destruction and damage, it's surprising. No one lost their lives. Yeah, that's the big message this afternoon, Julia and some of that damage right here next to me here in Portage. And this is just one of countless scenes where you are seeing uh trees many times larger than I am just uprooted. The sheer force of mother nature is uh was incredible and the fact that no lives were lost here is something uh that officials from here in Portage and across Kalamazoo County are just so grateful for. Uh now take a look here. Have been gathering video and pictures as we've told you from across the area, just the incredible effects of mother nature and how the destruction just riddled this area. Now, at that news conference, we learned that officials from across the county and here in the city of Portage, they're working really hard, tirelessly. They say to get people back on their feet. About a third of the folks who lost power that has been restored At this point, there should be many more folks to get power back by midnight tonight. That was the big message. There will be more folks though who will have to wait to get power back until tomorrow. We know that hundreds of electric and gas crews are out working to restore traffic intersections and electricity and gas lines and clean up power lines that are on the ground. Ultimately, folks from the city and from the county were really pleased with how the alert system last night. They're really crediting the all different sorts of alerts that go out to let people know what's happening during severe weather and they're thanking those systems and really proud of how those work to keep people safe throughout this, this ongoing scenario. And again, as we've been saying, no one died here in this situation, which is truly incredible. Just a couple of injuries. Here's more from the public safety director just about how they're feeling a day after a tragedy. It is really hard to comprehend. What you see out there. Uh And then to, um, put that up against the fact that we had not only no fatalities but little if any, um, injuries at all, it's just mind boggling. It makes you think that somebody was definitely looking out for us. Um, it, um, uh our warning systems um worked perfectly again, reiterating what I mentioned there. Now, if you are in need of help, if you need mental health services, if you need shelter, if you need food, if you need water, your first step is to be uh to call 211, that way the area officials can get you in the right direction to what you're needing to get back on your feet. I will have much more on the response from the county and the city of Portage coming up tonight on 13 on your side at 11 for now live here in Portage. I'm Julia Gorman 13 on your side. The powerful storms blew roofs off buildings, collapsed, mobile homes, uprooted trees and knocked down power lines. Elena Holland is live tonight in Portage with a look at the damage, Elena Juliet. Now, can you imagine being inside of this pizza hut when the tornado went through? That was the reality for some of the employees. And when we spoke to them last night, one employee told us he assured everyone inside of the walking cooler. But before he did that, he was scared for his life that they might not make it out. But thankfully, everyone was safe. As you can see, this tornado imported, completely decimated this building. It's a strip mall with multiple places. The pizza hut, like I mentioned an E cigarette store, a barber shop, a workout facility and an insurance company. This is at the corner of Oakland and Center right through where one of these tornadoes went through. Now, let's take a look now at some of the pictures and video that you sent us from the tornado and some of its aftermath. Tuesday night tornadoes took claim to the Portage area leaving this destruction in its wake. This is video from WXY Z's helicopter showing how this storm has devastated this area. Take a look at this video from a Holman Portage, a person named Chris shared this on Twitter showing the moment the tornado knocked out trees, one after another after another look at that like it right? Movies. Chase Warrior captured a tornado on video near the village of colon. It was quite an adrenaline rush, but then you're also worried about, you know, well, what about my house and my other animals? And you know, all this stuff starts going through your brain like this is this is serious during the storm, Josh Manning took this video inside a building near the Portage fedex facility. The fedex Ship Center partially collapsed, ripping off the roof and front of the building. All 50 employees did make it out safely. This is aerial footage taken by the chief of police of Union City Chris Mathis. The video shows the damage along Dunks road which is just outside the village of Sherwood barns and homes flattened silos, torn to pieces. Meanwhile, it appears that there is at least 10 homes destroyed. One woman possibly in one of the houses, first responders dealing with the aftermath, assisting people out of multiple mobile homes decimated from the tornado. Kalamazoo County Sheriff Rick Fuller, about 176 homes are what we believe are the damaged properties inside the mobile home community. This is Pavilion Estate's mobile home park east of Portage. As our crews drove through the area home after home, flattened with parts of walls, roofs and belongings, littering the road and ground. I couldn't imagine a damage like this happening. And you know, driving to this area today from our Grand Rapids Station, you could see trees on the ground and we saw a few falling onto homes. We are hoping the people who in there were in those homes at the time were ok and they're able to rebuild or do what they need to. Once again, we're at the area of Oakland and Center and Portage where we do see that the intersection light is broken, there's pieces of that light hanging down, but the road is still open. So if you're traveling this way, keep that in mind, you are able to pass through, we'll have so much more on this tornado and live updates from Portage here. So stay with us tonight at six. But for now reporting live in Portage, Elena Holland 13 on your side, Juliette. Thank you, Elena tonight. We're hearing from the family of a woman who was trapped under her own home after the tornado ripped it off its foundation and moved it several feet away. 13 on your side's Lauren Baker spoke to her family members who say they are thankful they're cleaning up and not planning a funeral. And I hear that their house is gone, gone and, and her, her emotion in that phone call and the screaming was the worst. Sorry, it was terrible. A blanket of fear covers a family Tuesday night after a woman rescue rescue, full response gets trapped under her own home. At least 10 trailers are destroyed at this point. One occupied by a female. It happened after a tornado ripped through home in the Oak Brook estates neighborhood in Portage, picking up the woman's home and sending it flying several feet. Kathy Irwin, the cousin of the woman named there showed 13 on your side where her cousin was trapped among the rubble with only her arm sticking out. But it was kind of like right here because she was in, she was pushed into the deck. So she went with this room right here and then Mark. Mark ended up in the yard. Lexi Tin. Another cousin says she and her brother ran down the street with axes. After hearing someone was trapped on her cousin's street, I was asking people if they were ok as I was making my way and they're like, we're all fine. There's only one house that was completely destroyed and there's a woman under it. But as she and other family members arrived, they realized who it was. Seconds went by. The family worried she wasn't going to make it when it help arrived and rescued the woman who walked away with only a couple of stitches and bruises. She's so lucky. And now as the family shifts through that rubble, trying to find pictures and items they can take home, they say they're blessed and thankful that this story ended with a miracle. We thank God that it could have been a lot worse. We were here to see to make sure uh Theresa Mark, we're ok. And thankfully thankfully, they are thankfully they are. Lauren joins us now live and Lauren, we did hear that the woman's husband was also hurt. What did the family tell you about him? Yeah, Juliette, the family says that the husband, husband was actually pushed outside the home when the tornado came through, he did break his neck, but he is expected to be ok. Reporting in Portage for 13 on your side. I'm Lauren Baker. Thanks. First responders were out immediately after the tornado through, tore through several Portage neighborhoods and many were displaced from their homes, including a pregnant woman who went into labor. 13 on your side's Kiara Patterson talked to the first responders to get their perspective. This one right here, we had 47 people walk out back to Sherring Road and take buses that were going to take in the shelters. The city of Portage received some of the worst effects of the tornado Tuesday evening. Homes were completely destroyed and cars were totalled. Police and firefighters were the first on the scene. As many people were displaced from their homes there. We had report people trapped at this location, which was one of the buildings behind you. As I arrived on scene, people were coming out of their dwellings. So we have 12 structures, four dwellings in each structure. So that's 48 homes that were displaced. Most of these cars could not drive out. We had it worked out great where we quickly had our during all the chaos, the fire marshal says one woman went into labor and I said, is anybody hurt right now that needs to go to the hospital. And the guy goes, this lady is going into labor and she was standing there and looked as though she was in labor. It's like, ok, so we put her in my car, met up with another firefighter, put her in his truck, he got her out to the main road to see an ambulance. And I had come back in here, Kiara joins us now live. And Kiara, how is that pregnant woman doing Juliet? She is doing ok. She is still in the hospital but she's expected to deliver sometime soon. But she is doing all right for now reporting live in Portage. Kiara Patterson 13 on your side. Our weather team spent the day tracking the storm and started their extended coverage live. Well, before the tornado warnings were ever issued. Chief meteorologist George Lessons joins us now with a timeline of the track and the latest information he's getting in. It was on the ground for 22 minutes starting at about 5:55 p.m. National weather service has completed their survey and it has been rated as an EF two storm. That's the enhanced Puga scale with winds up to 135 MPH, which is considered considerable damage. So the storm actually began way down in northwestern Indiana, part of a super cell complex that put down one tornado right around 230 or so around Michigan City. And then that's that same storm that traversed all the way up through the portage area with that confirmed tornado right around six o'clock in the evening. Further south around the, the uh uh three rivers area down through Poland and further south. Those storms will be surveyed by the National Weather service out of Indiana and their reports are still pending, but the storm was on the ground for 11 miles for 22 minutes and along the path, many of those homes had uh wind damage as you saw throughout many of our reports. And this is the inside of the storm. This is where the storm rotation is right there, moving through the Kalamazoo area and there's the track of the storm as well. Several tracks, uh 12 and three further to the south, even down around the cold water area at one point, right around 550. You could see right in here. Uh, there was, uh, winds up to 100 and 47 MPH. That was about 3800 ft above the ground and eventually that moved down toward the ground as it tore through the city of a portage. We'll have more information on our weekend, which will be much calmer a little bit later on.
