Kalamazoo officials declare local state of emergency to mobilize additional resources after tornado
Kalamazoo County declared a local state of emergency Saturday after a series of severe thunderstorms swept through the area Thursday evening, causing widespread outages and damage, local officials say.
The hardest hit areas of the storm remain in southwest Michigan, more specifically Galesburg, where a EF-0 tornado touched down, the news release and reporting from the Free Press show.
Currently 35,688 Michigan energy customers remain without power as of 4:55 a.m. Sunday, May 18, according to an outage map by PowerOutage.us.
'This has been an incredibly difficult time for our residents. Just over a year ago, we were dealing with the aftermath of the May 7, 2024, tornado, and now another storm has caused widespread damage,' said Jen Strebs, chair of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners, in the news release. 'Our team is working alongside our partners to ensure that help is available where it's needed most. We will continue doing everything we can to support our residents as they recover.'
The declaration by county officials enables the county to mobilize additional resources when needed.
More than 244,000 customers initially lost power across the region.
Officials say Consumers Energy crews are still working to restore power, remove lines and address large customer clusters.
According to county officials, the American Red Cross will distribute 50 cases of water and clean-up kits Monday, May 19, at the Kalamazoo Community Church, 2435 N 26th St., just north of Comstock High School, beginning at 11:00 a.m.
They are also encouraging residents to:
Leave refrigerators closed as long as possible to prevent cold air from escaping during short outages.
After a power outage, throw out perishable foods that were in your refrigerator after 4 hours, in a half-full freezer for 24 hours, or a full freezer for 48 hours.
Never taste food to determine its safety after a power outage.
'When in doubt, throw it out.'
Only use generators outdoors, more than 20 feet away from your home, doors, and windows.
Residents are also urged to express caution around downed power lines and maintain a safe distance from them.
Hazardous conditions can be reported by calling 911 or Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kalamazoo officials declare a local state of emergency to help residents
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Canadian wildfire smoke engulfs Michigan's Mackinac Bridge, causing it to disappear
It's not Halloween, but it looks straight out of a horror movie: The Mackinac Bridge looked like it disappeared into some scary-looking fog Wednesday afternoon. "Unfortunately, what you're seeing today is not fog surrounding the @mackinacbridge but smoke coming from the wildfires and our neighbors to the North," the Mackinac Bridge Authority posted on X on Wednesday. For days, skies in Michigan have been a dull, chalky near-white. The smoke from some 77 out-of-control wildfires in Canada has been dominating the skies over the state. The level of air quality degradation varies from year to year — 2023 was a particularly bad year for wildfire smoke over Michigan. Last year, not so much. In 2025, the smoke has returned. The view from the bridge Thursday, June 5, is a bit clearer, but you can still see the smoke from the fires. Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), Twitter/X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress). Contact Amy Huschka: ahuschka@ or follow her on Twitter/X (@aetmanshuschka). Stay connected and stay informed. Become a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Canadian wildfires made Michigan's Mackinac Bridge disappear
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Yahoo
Suffer through or turn on the AC? What to know about metro Detroit's warmer weather
Metro Detroit residents will likely ponder whether to turn on their air conditioners this week, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist. The week is shaping up to be fairly warm at the start before an expected cold front rolls in mid-week with the possibility of rain and thunderstorms, said Bryan Tilley, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in White Lake Township. With a high around 80 degrees expected on Monday, June 2, and temperatures in the high 80s expected on both Tuesday, June 3, and Wednesday, June 4, residents are 'maybe finally getting a little taste of real summer weather,' Tilley said. More: Most Michiganders set their AC thermostat to this temperature, poll shows More: Summer heat can cause cell phones to shut down. What to know. The first several days of the week, starting June 2, are expected to be mostly sunny, but a cold front is expected to arrive on June 4 and that evening with the chance of thunderstorms, he said. Thursday, June 5, could see some off-and-on rain and Friday, June 6, is a bit more uncertain, with the potential for more consistent rain that day, he said. However, the so-called 'cold front' is only expected to drop high temperatures into the 70s for the latter half of the week, Tilley said. Michigan garden guide: Picking the right flowers, things to consider before planting What is the air quality in Michigan? Advisory in effect because of Canadian wildfires The fact that high temperatures won't drop as low as, say, the 50s is 'a good sign that we're turning the corner at least' to more summery weather, Tilley said. Temperatures have been below normal recently. While it is too early to say for certain and the timing of the front could shift, current projections show the weekend with highs in the high 70s and partly sunny days. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Suffer through or turn on the AC? Warmer days headed to Detroit
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Yahoo
Canadian wildfire emergency spreads to second province
The western Canadian province of Saskatchewan declared a wildfire emergency on Thursday, becoming the second to do so after neighboring Manitoba had ordered 17,000 people to quickly flee their homes in remote communities a day earlier. "It's a very serious situation that we're faced with in Saskatchewan," the province's Premier Scott Moe told a news conference. "We are putting in place every measure possible to prepare our communities," he continued. Around 4,000 residents were evacuated from the province earlier this week, and more evacuations appear possible with no rain in the weather forecast. "Looking ahead, it doesn't look good. It looks like it is going to further deteriorate," Moe added. Manitoba declared a province-wide state of emergency late Wednesday and ordered the evacuations of several small towns and Indigenous communities as the province experienced its worst start to a wildfire season in years. Many of the weary evacuees arrived in the provincial capital Winnipeg on Thursday after a long and harrowing nighttime drive on jammed roads. In two remote northern Indigenous communities in Manitoba, "Air Force planes were deployed the process of evacuating people," Canada's Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said Thursday. At a city hockey arena set up as an emergency shelter, Matthew LaRosa, who fled the town of Flin Flon in northern Manitoba with his mother Lisa, told the Free Press it had simply been a "long day." "Yesterday, when we got the evac notice, it was, 'Go to the house, grab everything, load the truck and get out of town,'" he told the daily. Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham said in a news release, "We know many families are arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs." "As thousands flee dangerous wildfires, Winnipeg will do what we've always done in times of crisis: open our doors and stand together," he said. - 'Long way from home' - "People are exhausted," Luc Mullinder, head of the Manitoba branch of the Red Cross, told AFP. "They've traveled a long way from home and folks don't know if their home is going to be there when they get back or whether they can get back," he said. "So there's a range of strong emotions." Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has said the province was experiencing its worst start to a wildfire season in years. "This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most people's living memory," he told a news conference late Wednesday. The widespread nature of the fires was also cause for alarm, he warned. "For the first time, it's not a fire in one region, we have fires in every region. That is a sign of a changing climate that we are going to have to adapt to." Nearly 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of forests have been scorched in just the past month in Manitoba, three times the annual average for the past five years, according to officials. Across Canada, there are currently 163 active fires, with half of them considered out of control. Flin Flon, a mining town about 800 kilometers (497 miles) north of Winnipeg with about 5,000 residents, is the largest single community to be evacuted so far this year. Its mayor, George Fontaine, said midday Thursday that the last bus out of town was about to leave as wildfires burned to just 500 meters (0.3 miles) from the town. "It's a very tense situation," he told AFP. Firefighters were trying to push back the flames, he said, but "visibility is very poor due to the smoke, so it's impossible for water bombers to get near the fires to attack them." "It's all weather-dependent at this point," he said. amc/jgc
