Below is an exclusive interactive panoramic image taken by my wife Anne C. Savage. You can view three more panos on her blog post on her Politics in Pictures blog as well as some of her fantastic still photography.
Right at the edge of the Huron Farms subdivision that was hardest hit by this tornado (which media are reporting had wind speeds as high as 140 mph) is Busch’s grocery store. I was just there and their parking lot is full of shredded insulation. They have a free lunch set up for neighborhood residents.
More on their efforts to help the residents HERE and HERE. The LaFontaine auto dealership has set up a relief fund, as well.
Additionally, they are taking donations at their cash registers:
Just east of their parking lot, you can see where the tornado left the neighborhood, cutting a swath through the wooded area and leaving debris like housing insulation hanging in the trees and shrubs. The store itself clearly missed a direct hit by only several hundred feet.
Governor Rick Snyder visited the area this afternoon.
This is the earliest F3 tornado in Michigan’s history.
As we left the downtown area this morning, I heard a woman sum the entire situation up as eloquently as anyone: “It’s just not worth 80 degree days in March.”
