Four confirmed tornadoes touched down in Southwest Michigan this week amid a night of severe storms.
The timing was peculiar: Those tornadoes tore through Kalamazoo County almost 60 years to the day when Michigan saw it’s second-deadliest tornado ever.
On Tuesday, May 7, at least four tornadoes hit the Kalamazoo County area, significantly damaging structures and homes in the city of Portage. A state of emergency was declared for several counties in the area, and Portage made an emergency declaration, as well.
It did not appear that the tornadoes caused any casualties. Some injuries were reported, but local authorities said they were minor and not life threatening.
---> Update on major damage, outages, traffic issues in Michigan city hit by tornado
The same can’t be said for May 8, 1964, when a tornado touched down in the area of Chesterfield Township and New Baltimore in Macomb County. That tornado killed 13 people, and injured hundreds of others.
Here’s a look at what happened on that day, as written by 4Warn Meteorologist Emeritus Paul Gross:
A tornado watch was in effect on May 8, 1964, but the tornado warning came too late for many people. A tornado touched down and widened to 800 yards in diameter, and strengthened to 166-200 mph.
Several eye-witness accounts recall that the tornado started near the I-94 and 21 Mile Road intersection at 4:59 p.m., according to the National Weather Service. The tornado then tracked along Jefferson Road, and skirted along Harbor Drive before exiting land into Anchor Bay in Lake St. Clair.
“The Tornado Project,” by Tom Grazulis, further reports that the twister touched down in the Cape Heart housing area, where it leveled several homes. It then moved to the Forbes residential area where, according to reports, homes “exploded like matchsticks,” and cars were hurled for hundreds of feet, crashing into houses.
About 132 homes there were destroyed, and 200 more were damaged.
In total, 13 people were killed, and between 200-400 people were injured in the tornado. One of the reasons that casualties were so high is that, due to the bay-area homes being so close to the water, the water table is higher and fewer people were able to build basements with their homes as a result.
The tornado caused $3 million in damage in 1964 dollars -- which is the equivalent of $30.3 million in 2024 dollars, accounting for inflation.
Below are photos from the 1964 tornado damage, courtesy of Keith Weisgerber, a retired chief of the Roseville Fire Department.
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