Tornadoes in February? In the Great Lakes? Storms Leave a Trail of Destruction

Severe thunderstorms that appear to have spawned a rare February tornado outbreak sent sleeping Midwesterners scrambling for safety and left a trail of damage and power outages across four Great Lakes states, including the Chicago suburbs, ending a spell of summerlike, sometimes record temperatures.

Tornadoes or suspected tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio littered roads with fallen trees and branches, shredded homes and barns, and scattered debris across city and countryside alike. No injuries were reported, despite the storm's timing at night.

In Michigan's Grand Blanc Township, near Flint, winds damaged subdivisions, tore up trees and uprooted gas lines in the wee hours of Wednesday. Police officers said they saw a tornado, but weather authorities have yet to confirm that.

Police and firefighters moved residents in an area of gas leaks to a firehouse, and they were allowed to return when a utility made repairs, authorities said.

“There are still numerous reports of wires down in the area,” police said. “While there is significant damage to houses in the area, no one was hurt.”

More than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, a confirmed tornado damaged homes and barns and knocked down trees and power lines in Calhoun County, near the city of Marshall, sheriff's and weather authorities said.

Warning sirens jolted residents of central Ohio awake as a possible tornado hit near Columbus.

Carole Essex's family — husband Andy, their infant and a 2-year-old — were asleep at their home in Columbus as the storm approached. When they became aware of the threat, they ran for cover.

“We woke up and went down to the basement. We grabbed the kids and went down,” Essex, 29, told The Columbus Dispatch. “It sounded like our house collapsed. I looked at Andy and said, 'Oh, my god, we were hit by a tornado.’”

Storms destroyed a hangar and damaged planes at a small airport in Madison County, between Dayton and Columbus. Toppled trees closed roads in the area until the debris could be cleared.

Two other storms in Ohio were confirmed as tornadoes, one in Montgomery and Greene counties in southwestern Ohio and one east of Columbus in Licking County, the National Weather Service said on X, formerly Twitter.

At one point, more than 50,000 customers in Ohio and Michigan lacked power Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.

In Geneva, in Chicago’s western suburbs, storms uprooted trees and left some homes with broken windows and shorn-off doors Tuesday evening, said Fire Chief Mike Antenore.

Geneva resident Rebecca Harrington said the storm “cycloned” into her home and collapsed its foyer area.

“The back of my house is sort of hanging off,” Harrington told WGN-TV, which reported no injuries.

The storms followed unusual warmth across Illinois in recent days, the National Weather Service said. They were followed Wednesday by a return to winter weather, with snow and temperatures in the 20s.

Weather service teams throughout the region were trying to confirm tornado reports. One suspected tornado traveled across Chicago's southern suburbs — from Calumet City, Illinois, into East Chicago and Gary in northwestern Indiana — before heading out to Lake Michigan as a waterspout, said weather service meteorologist Kevin Doom.

If a tornado in Grand Blanc Township is confirmed, it would be only the second February tornado for that part of Michigan since recordkeeping began in 1950, following one in Wayne County on Feb. 28, 1974, said meteorologist Dave Kook, of the weather service's Detroit office.

The warm weather and severe storms, including hail up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) in diameter, on Tuesday and Wednesday are unusual for the area this time of the year, Kook said.

“This is not typical of late February by any means," he said. “Basically, it’s kind of a month ahead of schedule for southeast Michigan.”

The weather service office that covers southwestern and central Ohio has recorded winter tornadoes almost every year since 2012.

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Image: A large uprooted tree lays in the yard as first responders search and secure an apartment building on Washington Blvd., south of Hawley St. in Mundelein, Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024, that sustained storm damage. (John Starks/Daily Herald via AP)

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