Dozens of people trapped when tornado collapses FedEx building in Michigan | Extreme weather


Tornadoes that hit Michigan on Tuesday evening ripped the roof off a FedEx building in Portage, partially collapsing the structure and trapping 50 people inside, Kalamazoo county authorities said. Elsewhere in the state, thousands of residents are without power and face a deluge of hail and tornado warnings amid severe thunderstorms.

“TAKE COVER NOW,” the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids warned in a post directed at Portage residents on their Facebook page.

First responders are trying to get people out but are impeded by downed power lines, said Kalamazoo emergency management.

FedEx said the company is monitoring the situation and issued a statement expressing concern. “Our thoughts are with those affected by the tornado in Portage, Michigan, and we are grateful there were no serious injuries resulting from the damage to our facility at 6701 Portage Road. We continue to assess the damage, and we are implementing contingency plans to lessen any potential impacts on service. Customers with questions about their shipments can check fedex.com for updates,” Shannon Davis with FedEx media relations said.

The tornado targeting Portage, about 80 miles south-west of Lansing, Michigan’s capital, has been reported on the ground damaging buildings and knocking down multiple trees and power lines throughout the area, according to Facebook posts from the Kalamazoo county sheriff’s office. The NWS also declared a tornado emergency in Union City, more than 120 miles east of Portage.

Michiganders join more than 10 million people in parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky who also face storms and tornadoes on Tuesday.

The severe weather in Michigan follows a deadly tornado and storm in Barnsdall, a small town in Oklahoma that is home to around 1,000 residents, that left one person dead, five injured and dozens of homes damaged on Monday night and early Tuesday morning, according to the local television news station KOCO. This was just one of more than a dozen tornadoes that tore through central US states including Kansas, South Dakota, and Missouri on Monday and Tuesday.

Debris and damage from powerful storms in Barnsdall. Photograph: Mike Simons/AP
Paden Fincher at his sister’s home in Barnsdall. Photograph: Mike Simons/AP

Less than two weeks before this, another tornado ripped through Nebraska and Iowa, with the most damage happening in Omaha, where hundreds of homes and structures and several miles of farmland were destroyed, the Associated Press reports. And in Lancaster county, home to Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, 70 people were trapped inside an industrial building that had collapsed.

This most recent devastation in Michigan follows nearly two months of destruction across the midwest, including a cluster of more than 10 tornadoes in mid-March that swept through five states including Indiana and Ohio. At least three people were killed in those storms and more than one hundred were injured.





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