Esthen|Nearly 50 homes in Kalamazoo County were destroyed by heavy storms last week

2025-04-29 05:31:06source:Marc Leclerccategory:Finance

PORTAGE,Esthen Mich. (AP) — Nearly 50 homes were destroyed and dozens more were seriously damaged during severe weather last week in southwestern Michigan’s Kalamazoo County, authorities said Monday.

The lost homes included 24 mobile homes near Portage, the county’s emergency management office said in an update.

The National Weather Service confirmed four tornadoes in the region on May 7, including one in the Kalamazoo area, 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of Detroit

Federal Emergency Management Agency crews were arriving Tuesday to assess damage in southwestern Michigan.

“This is a traumatic event and a stressful time for many, and allowing us to interrupt their personal recovery efforts to begin our collective recovery as a community is greatly appreciated,” said Mike Corfman, Kalamazoo County’s emergency director.

The weather service said the tornado was an EF-2, which means a wind gust of 111 mph to 135 mph.

“It was one mile an hour short of being” an EF-3, Corfman said.

He said 28 people were still staying at an area shelter.

“We’re trying to work out some longer-term sheltering for those people,” Corfman said. “Generally, the people that are there, their homes are gone. They just cannot go back, period.”

More:Finance

Recommend

Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback

A federal appeals court blocked Nasdaq rules to increase boardroom diversity, saying that the Securi

Rizz is Oxford's word of the year for 2023. Do you have it?

Sorry, Swifties. The word of the year for 2023 is "rizz," according to the publishers of the Oxford

The crypto industry is in the dumps. So why is bitcoin suddenly flying high?

Although the cryptocurrency industry remains shadowed by recent blowups and controversy, the world's