NWS to survey Detroit's east side for potential tornado

Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield declared a local state of emergency after she said the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down during storms on Thursday afternoon on the city's east side.The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado was an EF-2 with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph with a maximum width of .5 miles and a path of 3.5 miles. "A fast moving tornado touched down along Hancock Rd near Ellery Pl where it snapped tree limbs and damaged residential siding. As it crossed E Forest Ave it overturned an outbuilding and damaged the roof of the Preferred Meal Systems building, including partial tearing of the roof and tipping of an HVAC unit. Portions of the fence behind the building were bent with areas of sheet metal blown out. A large tree was also uprooted and fell across Garfield St. Tornadic damage continued to the Mt Elliot and Gratiot Ave intersection where it detached traffic signals and snapped several trees.Damage intensity increased and became more widespread along a south-southeast path from the intersection of Mack Ave and Mt Elliot St to the intersection of E Grand Blvd and E Lafayette St. This included significant damage to industrial buildings along Bellevue St and Beaufait St with roofs partially torn off and walls collapsed or blown out. Further southeast into the residential areas toward Concord Ave and Canton St numerous large trees were uprooted and snapped, electrical and lighting poles were bent or snapped, and homes exhibited roof/siding/window damage. Two vacant buildings collapsed along St Paul St near Concord Ave with minimal brick structure remaining. Also worth noting, some sheet metal from the Utica Washers building was found one mile away in a field near Helen St and E Congress St. Damage in this stretch was consistent with high-end EF-1 to low-end EF-2 indicators. The tornado continued tracking along E Grand Blvd over its intersection with E Jefferson Ave further snapping or uprooting trees in Gabriel Richard Park. Additionally the sign of the Pekin restaurant was nearly entirely torn off with a nearby building exhibiting substantial brick fascia torn off as well as roof damage. The tornadic track continued over the Detroit River to Belle Isle making landfall just east of the Belle Isle Boat House where a scull boat was blown into a tree as well as numerous trees uprooted or snapped. Tree damage continued across the central portions of Belle Isle before ending near the Model Yacht Basin where the tornado reached the other side of the Detroit River."Sheffield signed an executive order Friday declaring a local state of emergency, which gives her more authority to mobilize local resources to help with recovery efforts. The declaration highlights specific areas: Sylvester Street to the north, E. Jefferson Avenue to the south, Chene to the west and McClellan to the east.“I spent a good amount of time in the hardest hit area earlier today and the devastation I witnessed is unlike anything I’ve seen before,” Sheffield said Friday in a statement. “An emergency declaration is clearly warranted in this case so we can bring support to residents in this arear as quickly as possible.”The storm knocked out stoplights at roughly 100 intersections across the city, brought trees crashing into multiple homes and left one man injured — the only known injury citywide. Some of the worst damage is concentrated in an area on the east side near Vernor and Mt. Elliot, where buildings and walls appear to have completely collapsed, and siding was ripped off structures as debris scattered the street.See the latest update from the mayor in the video below"You wouldn't believe that something like this would happen in Detroit," Alma Anderson, a Detroit resident, said.Watch the Full Story Below"So many properties are just, the roofs torn down, they've fallen down, the lines down there on Benson are completely bent, and it's just horrendous," Anderson said.Asiya El works at Driven by Growth, an after-school program for youth in Detroit. She was inside their building keeping kids calm as the storm moved through."Lightning, rain and then rumbling under the floor. We could feel the energy outside, inside," El said."It was crazy, it was scary," El said.Their building was untouched, but the damage was directly across the street."I felt very blessed we missed it, I really felt blessed," El said.Mayor Mary Sheffield joined a number of department heads to survey the damage."A tornado actually possibly touching down in Detroit? I've never seen," Sheffield said."We have every department working on this, from our GSD to DPW to homeland security," Sheffield said.This story was reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.