Tornado in Dexter/Ann Arbor 3/15/12 at Hudson Mills Metro Park

Uploaded by treetownsound on Mar 15, 2012

Taped at Hudson Mills Metro Park in Dexter about 5:30PM on March 15th by Matthew Altruda (with Nicole Myint)
I was there alone with my girlfriend and do not know anyone else in the video and not approve of any of the foul language. I however understand that in a time of crisis people are not always able to control their fears. I am deeply saddened about the people who lost their homes and currently working on a benefit show and fundraiser with the Red Cross. If you would like to help, please donate to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fun. Donations of food, clothing and other items can not be accepted. If you would like to make a donation, call 734-971-5300 or visit wc-redcross.org to make a secure online donation. Donations are welcome in person at the American Red Cross, Washtenaw-Lenawee Chapter, 4624 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48108

Yeah, People who don't live in Michigan have no room to talk about how these Michiganders reacted. Here, we do not have tornadoes. We get maybe a dozen funnel clouds reported in the Lower Peninsula per year... I can say with certainty that for 90% of those individuals - that was not only the largest - but the ONLY tornado they will ever see in their lives. Anything that beautiful and powerful, which may only be viewed by a lucky handful for a fleeting moment, Is worth celebrating.

SpringfieldPosse07 9 hours ago

Eight stories of people who saw the twisters
Monroe County had six confirmed funnel clouds with reported touchdowns in the Temperance/Lambertville area, in Ida Township, and in Monroe Township, according to Mark Hammond, the director of the Monroe County Emergency Management Division. There also was an unconfirmed report of a twister in Lapeer, the National Weather Service said.
The twisters were part of a heavy storm system of rain, hail and high winds that swept southeast Michigan -- downing trees and power lines, sparking fires and flooding neighborhood roads.
In addition to the tornado watch, weather forecasters warned of severe thunderstorms with golf-ball sized hail and damaging winds.

In Huron Farms, Jennifer Lawrence was just driving into her driveway with her two children when the sirens went off. She raced into the house, grabbing diapers for the baby and things to occupy her children’s attention. Then she ran down into the basement and into a closet. The funnel cloud touched down at about 5:30 p.m.
“I listened to it all come down. I could hear ripping, hitting and falling," she said. "I texted my husband, ‘we’re getting hit.’ ”
Lawrence said her “greatest fear, ever” was being in a tornado. “That’s why we moved into this house, because it had a basement,” her husband Tim Lawrence said.
Their previous home in Ann Arbor did not have basement.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Bob Bricault, 53, of Dexter, was on the phone with his cousin in Pinckney to warn him that a tornado had been sighted in Pinckney, but when he glanced out the window of his house, he saw a tornado in Dexter. The rotating clouds were moving slowly north.
He ran into the basement as the storm hit. When it seemed like the worst was over, he and a neighbor ran three houses down to an elderly neighbor's home, which was almost completely destroyed. They could hear the elderly man in the basement, but he wouldn’t come out. So, the men crawled through a basement window and pulled him out. The elderly man seemed uninjured but in shock.
Bricault then returned to his own home. The garage and the front of his house had caved in. A pillow from one of the bedrooms was stuffed under a workbench in his garage. As he worked to clean up, several neighbors came by to help and offer him a place to stay.


Matthew Altruda, 37, of Ann Arbor was spending the afternoon in Hudson Mills Metro park near Dexter with his girlfriend, Nicole Myint, 30, when the storm hit.
“We were going back to our car because it looked like it was about to rain, when someone told us to get in the car now,” he said.
They went into the clubhouse at the park along with about 20 other people, and he recorded what they saw and posted it to YouTube. He also said he saw baseball-size hail.
“It sounded like a train going by; it was super loud,” said Altruda, who is a radio DJ for Ann Arbor’s 107.1-FM. “It was scary and now that I see the houses that were destroyed [on TV], I’m just like, wow.”

Sam Riffle was checking his mail when he saw a funnel cloud tear through the farm fields near his house in Ida Township just before 7 p.m.
He jumped into his Dodge Ram truck to race to the home of friends just down the road to warn them. “I couldn’t keep control of the truck. It was blowing me all over the place,” he said. He watched as the cloud, “sucked up water right out of the ground in the field.”
An hour later, he was standing in his friends’ garage as hail batter the vehicles outside. Thunder shook the garage, lightning split the sky.

The storm damaged a two-story farmhouse and flung a car and a lawn tractor in the yard.

Steve Park, 51, was on his way home on I-75 from his job in Romeo, where he works as an insulation engineer. He pulled over to watch the storm just south of Monroe. He said he was stunned when the clouds formed a funnel, and he started snapping photos with his cell phone.
"I've always wanted to see a tornado -- not that someone would get hurt, but the majesty of it,” he said.

Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti buckled down for the storm.
"We put out an all-campus notice to students to take cover and a tornado warning is in effect," school spokesman Walter Kraft said.
The notices were sent out via text messages and e-mails, Kraft said.

University of Michigan officials also sent warnings to students. Students, staff, faculty and visitors moved to safer locations. Several hundred people who were in the Michigan Union went into the basement, where large study areas surround fast-food restaurants.
U-M Junior Mark Wiseman, 20, of Livonia, was walking across campus as the heavy rains fell. He ducked inside just before sirens sounded.
University of Michigan Health System spokeswoman Kara Gavin said patients were moved into hallways and window blinds have been closed in rooms. Some critically ill patients were moved away from the windows and would be moved further if necessary.
There have been no reports of damage in or around the Ann Arbor hospitals, Gavin said.

And Bill Marx, head baker at Dexter Bakery, said he was closing up shop when he noticed the change in the weather and heard storm sirens.
"I stepped outside and saw the clouds turning around," Marx said. "It was coming toward us. After it went by, it really started raining and hailing."