Tagged: Dexter tornado

Spring storms are returning to the Midwest.

Warm air meeting cold air is often used as an explanation for how tornadoes form, but that's a "gross oversimplification" according to Roger Edwards of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

That's how many thunderstorms form, but most of those storms don't turn into tornadoes. Edwards writes, "the truth is that we don't fully understand [how tornadoes form]."

The cleanup effort is well underway after last week’s tornado in Dexter.

Steve Feinman, a trustee for Dexter Township, says volunteers have been incredibly helpful, and the township has hired a contractor to help with the cleanup.

Rather than wait to see if the state will send disaster relief funds, the township has gone ahead and allocated $200,000 from its own budget to help residents "remove trees and branches and shrub material that was damaged." Fineman says residents can bring those materials to the edge of the roadside for pickup. 

"You can’t wait for a state declaration to make sure your main thoroughfares are open, or people can get out of their houses and have their utilities back, so it’s a necessary thing," explains Fineman.

DEXTER, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Department of Corrections work crews are helping cleanup efforts following last week's tornado that hit Washtenaw County.

The department says crews from its Special Alternative Incarceration Program in Chelsea, a prison boot camp, will be in the Dexter area at least through Wednesday.

The department says the crews will work longer if requested.

Also Tuesday, the Washtenaw County Building Inspection Division announced that it will give priority to permit applications that are submitted as a result of Thursday's tornado damage.

DEXTER, Mich. (AP) — The American Red Cross says hundreds of volunteers turned out to help people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by a tornado in Washtenaw County.

Spokeswoman Jenni Hawes says the village of Dexter is quickly getting cleaned up. The Red Cross moved its services Saturday to Creekside Intermediate School, which is more centrally located.

A tornado damaged more than 100 homes Thursday and destroyed at least 13.   The Red Cross no longer will offer an overnight shelter. No one had spent the last two nights at a school.

People in Dexter are pulling together after Thursday’s tornado that destroyed or damaged more than a hundred homes and businesses

 “Help yourselves…there’s chips….” Supermarket manager Gary Winters told a woman who rode out Thursday's tornado in her Dexter home.    Winter spent his morning delivering water and snacks to emergency workers and construction contractors.   By midday, he was turning hot dogs on the barbeque grill as people from the tornado ravaged subdivision next door line up.

He says giving away free food and water is the least they could do for their neighbors..

 “Once you walk down there and see what actually happened last night," Winters pauses, "I don’t think…the pictures on the news really showed the amount of devastation down there.”  

 Everyone here says they are just grateful no one was seriously hurt or killed in the tornado.