Storms collapsed a movie-theater roof in Illinois and ripped siding off a building at a Michigan nuclear plant, forcing a shutdown. But most of the worst was reserved for a 11-km-long strip southeast of Toledo now littered with wrecked vehicles, splintered wood and family possessions.
The tornado ripped the roof and back wall off Lake High School’s gymnasium about 11 p.m. Saturday, several hours before the graduation ceremony was supposed to begin there.
The school board president said one of the victims was the father of the class valedictorian.
Two buses were tossed on their sides and another was thrown about 50 meters, landing on its top near the high school’s football field. More than 10 hours later, its right turn signal was still blinking.
Lake Township Police Chief Mark Hummer flew over the damaged area and said at least 50 homes were destroyed and another 50 severely damaged, as well as six commercial buildings. The storm fell over an area of farm fields and light industry, narrowly missing the heavily populated suburbs on the southern edge of Toledo.
“It’s a war zone,” Hummer said. “It’s pretty disheartening.” Rescue officials were still searching through homes Sunday and couldn’t say whether anyone else was missing, Lake Township Fire Chief Todd Walters said.
The tornado smashed a township police and emergency medical services building. Those killed included a person outside the police department and a motorist, Hummer said. He said a young child and two other victims were from nearby Millbury, a bedroom community of roughly 1,200 about 16 km southeast of Toledo. Hummer said two other people died at hospitals but he did not have details.
More than 30 people in the Toledo area were hospitalized.
Two adults and two children were in critical condition, said Mercy hospital system spokeswoman Gloria Enk. In southeastern Michigan, severe storms and high winds ripped siding off a building at the Fermi 2 nuclear plant, causing it to shut down automatically, said Dan Smith, the public information officer for Monroe County. Investigators were inspecting the nuclear plant on the shore of Lake Erie on Sunday morning, and the plant was expected to go back into operation, Smith said.
Tornadoes also were reported in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.
