Jackie Smith,Johnathan HoganPort Huron Times Herald
Reports of widespread property damage, downed trees and power lines, and other outages across Port Huron and the Blue Water Area arose after a brief but severe thunderstorm swept through the region late Thursday afternoon.
A severe storm warning was first issued for the area, including St. Clair County, earlier in the afternoon before winds picked up with rain around 4 p.m. A tornado warning was also issued across the St. Clair River in Sarnia, Ontario.
Some areas were temporarily closed to traffic because of fallen trees and downed lines, such as along 10th Avenue, as well as on nearby side streets in Port Huron. Around that area, Port Huron public works crews and other private contractors were busy at work addressing downed trees with many areas roped off to traffic and passers-by.
Traffic signals were also down across the area.
Part of Pine Grove Avenue was closed around a downed tree; as was Pine Grove Park Drive east of the avenue and Erie Street. The park itself sustained heavy damage in the storm, and residents who live nearby were venturing over to scope out the landscape for themselves.
Port Huron City Manager James Freed said Friday the city expected it could take about a week to clean up the damage in Pine Grove Park. He said it's been closed while contractors and workers with the forestry, parks and recreation departments remove debris.
Freed asked that residents avoid the park for their own safety and so clean up crews have space to work freely.
After 6 p.m., resident Jenn Collins watched as her kids Kelsey Wiley, 12, and Blake Neil, 16, climbed a fallen tree at the park. She said they live near Washington and 10th streets but were lucky to still have power.
Fellow resident Laura Sampson was also at the park but said she had lost power off 11th Street.
Multiple residents reported fallen trees on their homes, garages on vehicles. Sampson recalled seeing a massive tree fall, uprooting a nearby sidewalk, and "smashing the whole front end of a truck" driven by a U.S. Postal carrier who was still inside.
Port Huron Assistant Police Chief Brian Kerrigan said the mail carrier was uninjured.
By 7 p.m., Port Huron resident Janice Ruedisueli was cautiously exiting her apartment with belongings to go stay elsewhere in the 900 block of Elk Street after a tree fell on her car and the two-unit house during the storm.
Ruedisueli, who's lived in the lower unit for three years, said she was at work when she heard about the incident and didn't believe her neighbor upstairs was home. Both she and Kerrigan said the water was shut off after the property flooded as a result of the damage.
Despite the experience, Ruedisueli said she felt lucky it wasn't worse and that she had her truck while away from home. She said she wouldn't know the extent of the damage to her other car until the massive fallen tree was removed.
Other reports of damage varied around St. Clair County.
The Kimball Township Fire Department asked residents to avoid the area around the 2100 block of Allen Road because of downed lines.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Kevin Kacan in Detroit said St. Clair was the only area that appeared to have been hit with hail, some as big as golf balls which began falling around 3:45 p.m. Thursday.
There were no reports of injuries in St. Clair and only two calls for down powerlines, according to Mike Krul, first assistant chief for the St. Clair Fire Department.
Krul said there was heavy damage from the hail, which broke windows at the fire department and damaged cars in the parking lot. He said his own car had broken windows, and several St. Clair residents found dents in their vehicles after the hail passed.
Kacan said there were no tornadoes sighted on Michigan's side of the river. He said the hail came down primarily in and around St. Clair. Wind speeds at Fort Gratiot Light were recorded at around 45 mph.
No severe weather is forecasted for the near future in St. Clair County, though Kacan said there may be rain.
According to DTE Energy's outage map, more than 5,000 people in and around Port Huron were without power Friday morning, Kimball Township had an estimated 1,246 people without power. Marysville and St. Clair have largely avoided outages, according to the map, but Marine City has an estimated 1,030 people without power.
An update posted on DTE Energy's website states it expects 80% of those who lost power in the storm will have it restored by the end of Friday.
