A pickup truck and travel trailer lie wrapped around a severed willow tree in the yard of T.J. LaChappelle in Tuscola County’s Arbela Township. A tornado Monday night caused the damage and ripped the roof off the family home along Bray Road north of Birch Run Road. National Weather Service officials said winds reached speeds up to 115 mph in the tornado that started at the Pine Ridge RV Campground in southeast Saginaw County and traveled east generally along Birch Run Road into Tuscola County. (Photo by Tom Gilchrist)
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
ARBELA TWP. — National Weather Service officials said a tornado bounced across Tuscola County’s Arbela Township on Monday night, damaging homes, destroying pole barns, uprooting trees and knocking down power lines.
The twister ripped the roof off the home of T.J. LaChappelle along Bray Road north of Birch Run Road, wrapping a travel trailer and pickup truck around a willow tree in the family’s yard.
Next door, about 20 trees were uprooted or snapped off in the front and back yards of Arlyn Reece, 75.
“We’ve got a mess,” said Reece, driving an Advertiser reporter around on a golf cart to survey the damage.
The tornado that struck parts of Saginaw and Tuscola counties was one of four that struck in Michigan on Monday night or Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Tornadoes also hit Sanilac, St. Clair and Washtenaw counties.
No injuries were reported in Tuscola County, according to emergency dispatchers.
Property damage, however, was reported at the Diamond C Saddlery along Birch Run Road in Arbela Township, and to pole barns in the township, population 3,100.
Township Trustee Wayne Schultz said he and his wife, Lori, were outside Monday night viewing the skies when they heard a lingering sound. The storm struck the township about 10:22 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.
“It was just kind of a rumble, rumble sound, and it went on for about five minutes,” Schultz said. “I told my wife ‘That’s not thunder.’ All the damage was going on about one mile north of us, but it wasn’t windy here at all.”
National Weather Service survey teams traveled to Tuscola County on Tuesday morning to view damage.
“We’re pretty sure it’s a tornado,” said Sara Schultz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Oakland County’s White Lake Township. A funnel cloud doesn’t become a tornado until it touches ground.
If observers don’t witness a funnel cloud touching ground, “We judge whether it’s a tornado based on the damage,” Schultz said.
Due to storm damage, authorities blocked off about five miles of Birch Run Road, from Reese Road east to Belsay Road, on Tuesday morning.
“We aren’t going to have power for a while,” Schultz said. “The (utility) lines are really down. They’re lying across Birch Run Road.”
Township Supervisor Ken Panek added that “There are trees down just about everywhere.”
Media reports also told of damage to the Pine Ridge RV Campground along M-83 in Saginaw County’s Birch Run Township.