Roofs and walls on a busy business stretch were turned to tangled rubble. Mobile homes were destroyed. Tornadoes are so uncommon in northern Michigan that Gaylord doesn’t have a siren system to warn people about hazardous weather.
The town of 4,200 turned to cleanup Saturday, a day after a tornado with 140 mph winds pummeled Gaylord, killing two people, injuring more than 40 and shocking residents who are more familiar with snowstorms than spring windstorms.
A utility reported much progress in restoring electricity, though thousands still lacked power. Some roads remained clogged with downed poles and other wreckage.
“We have a lot of debris to clear,” said state police Lt. Derrick Carroll.
Two people in their 70s who lived at the Nottingham Forest mobile home park died, state police said. It was among the first sites hit by the tornado, which was rated an EF3 by the National Weather Service on a scale of 0-5.
“There have been trailers picked up and turned over on top of each other. Just a very large debris field,” said Chris Martin, Otsego County fire chief. Martin said crews used heavy equipment to conduct a secondary search of the area.
Gaylord, about 230 miles northwest of Detroit, is a popular destination for skiers and snowmobilers in the winter and golfers in the summer. It doesn’t have tornado sirens, though anyone with a mobile phone got a “code red” warning from the weather service about 10 minutes before the tornado hit, Carroll said.
Video posted online showed a dark funnel cloud approaching as anxious drivers looked on or slowly drove away on area roads.
“Everyone in Michigan is going to wrap our arms around those families and everyone who is working together to recover here,” Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said during a visit.