The National Weather Service confirmed what many in Ann Arbor already suspected: a tornado touched down early Wednesday morning.
The agency says the EF-1 tornado touched down in Ann Arbor, where Jackson Avenue and I-94 meet before continuing east on a 1.7-mile-long path of destruction.
“I’ve always heard a tornado sounds like a freight train, and it kinda sounded a little bit like that,” said Ann Arbor resident Jamie Woolard.
A shocking video showed the moment the tornado ripped the wall off the Veterans’ Memorial Park Ice Arena. Winds at 110 miles per hour snapped stadium lights and uprooted trees.
“We work directly with the National Weather Service. We heard directly from them last night that this was a tornado. They were able to confirm this was an EF-1 tornado, the path, and then they were on our EOC call earlier this morning sharing additional information,” said Ann Arbor emergency manager Sydney Parmenter.
From the Veteran’s Memorial Park, it continued east to Virginia Park, tearing up neighborhoods along the way.
“That’s my house with a spruce tree on it that’s growing right next to our house. Maybe 40 feet tall or something like that. Now they’re about to lift that thing off the house,” Woolard said.
Its force ripped the roof off a building on 4th Street as it approached downtown. That’s where the tornado ended, but the damage continued.
“The pockets of damage that they saw, especially south of downtown, was probably from a straight-line wind event,” Parmenter said.
NWS confirmed straight-line winds continued to batter buildings, trees, and homes from residential areas to the University of Michigan campus.
Even parts of the metal roof at Yost Ice Arena, home of Wolverines hockey, lay stripped at the edge of State Street.
“No one was injured by this tornado, and we’re very grateful for that,” Parmenter said.
She says the city will be conducting door-to-door damage assessments over the coming days. Residents should expect city workers to knock on their doors.
Widespread power outages were also a part of the aftermath, closing down all Ann Arbor public schools on Wednesday, but the district confirmed with me that all their schools are back open on Thursday.
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