At Least 4 Injured Near Detroit : Tornado Hits Mobile Home Park; 1 Dead

A tornado struck a mobile home park in the suburb of Novi on Sunday, knocking over up to 50 homes, killing one resident and trapping others in the rubble, authorities said.

State Police Trooper Michael Lewis said there was “one confirmed fatality” and hospitals reported at least four people injured, two critically, by the twister 25 miles northwest of Detroit.

There was no warning before the tornado touched down at Chateau Estates mobile home park, Oakland County sheriff’s Sgt. Doug Molinar said.

Searchers had combed the rubble and believed all residents were accounted for, but the search was continuing as a precaution, he said. Continued heavy rains were hampering the efforts, Molinar said.

Woman, Child Injured

A 27-year-old woman and her 19-month-old child were hospitalized in critical condition from injuries, said a Botsford Hospital spokesman in Farmington Hills. A couple injured at the park, Mary and James Koch, were in stable condition at Providence Hospital, a spokesman said.

The county was sending every available medical unit to aid in treating the injured, Molinar said.

Forecaster Joe Kopecek at the National Weather Service’s Ann Arbor office said the area was under a severe thunderstorm watch, along with other parts of southeastern Michigan. The heavy thunderstorms moved over northern sections of the Ohio Valley into southern Michigan and along the central Gulf Coast on Sunday.

Dick Wagenmaker at the National Weather Service said his staff was trying to determine whether the mobile home park was hit by a tornado or by some other type of storm.

“There’s somebody going up to look at it right now,” he said.

Sees Debris in Air

Park resident Leonard Terrell said that when he looked outside, he saw debris flying up into the air “like someone turned on a fan and threw a bunch of stuff up.”

“I went through one wall and landed in the bathtub,” said Terrell, whose trailer flipped over and was left, upside down, leaning on a nearby unit.

Those who did not escape included “one confirmed fatality” whose identity was not released, Trooper Lewis said. Neighbors said the only thing left standing at the dead person’s home was a stairway, eerily leading nowhere.

Leroy Harrison, a resident of the mobile home park, said he was looking out his window when the tornado passed by.

Went Down Center

“It went pretty much down the center of the mobile home park,” he told radio station WWJ.

“I did see the tornado go through. I saw skirting (from the homes), insulation, pieces of mobile homes flying around in a circular pattern.”

Another witness told the Detroit radio station that the storm “looked like the world was coming to an end.” Another said: “All I could do was grab the kids and hit the deck. . . . It just blew up all around us.”

The tornado caused some natural gas leaks in the area.

Utility crews were called to shut off electricity to avoid sparking an explosion, Detroit Edison Co. spokesman Marty Buffalini said. He said he did not know how many customers were affected.