Storms Damage School & Leave Thousands Powerless In West Michigan

Storms that past through West Michigan Tuesday brought damage to a Muskegon school, downed trees and many residents remain without power in the region.

When I was on the air yesterday, the clouds began rolling in heavy. And while the big storm didn't hit where I was located, it definitely hit other parts of West Michigan, some experiencing winds as high as 50 mph.

According to WOOD, heavy downpours caused serious damage to Cardinal Elementary School in Muskegon County. Students and teachers actually had to take shelter as the storm passed through.

A representative of Cardinal Elementary, Jim Nielsen, told WOOD-TV8,

We have procedures in place when there's bad weather and students knew how to react to that and we put students in safe areas of the building until the storm passed through.

Cardinal Elementary suffered damage to the roof over the cafeteria and gym. The damage to the roof led to flooding inside the school. Fortunately with all of that, no students or teachers were injured. The school will remained closed Wednesday but hopes to have kids back in class on Thursday.

I live north of Grand Rapids and ran into a little rain on the way home. Although when I got near the Hardy Dam, the fog was unbelievably thick. There were some beautiful lighting flashes off to the west that lit up the clouds and the fog.

There are reports of of giant oak trees being uprooted by the storm. The bulk of the storm damage happened in Muskegon County where thousands still remain without power.