UNION CITY, MI (WTVB) – The office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer is demanding a federal investigation into why the National Weather Service (NWS) failed to issue a tornado watch before a series of deadly storms devastated southwest Michigan last Friday. The storms, which included an EF-3 tornado with winds reaching 160 mph, resulted in four fatalities and dozens of injuries across Branch, Cass, and St. Joseph counties.
Whitmer’s spokesperson, Stacey LaRouche, stated that the absence of a watch is “troubling” and questioned whether recent federal funding cuts to the NWS hindered the agency’s ability to provide timely alerts to residents.
5th District congressman Tim Walberg who toured the devastated areas on Monday with other lawmakers dismissed the claims made by the governor’s office.
In response, the NWS says that while specific tornado warnings were issued once the storms were detected on radar, a broader “watch” was not initially warranted due to the “extremely isolated” and rapidly developing nature of the supercell. they say the storm intensified from “zero to 100” in minutes, making it difficult to detect in advance.
Meanwhile State Senator Jonathon Lindsey spent the day touring the damage and talking with many of those who were effected throughout his district
Lindsey cautioned against raising politics at this time, but noted that Michigan itself has some deficiencies, saying “Storms like this, although this situation is not unique, continue to highlight that the state needs to have a better overall approach to how we deal with disaster relief.”
Governor Whitmer has since declared a state of emergency for the affected counties to authorize the use of state resources for recovery efforts as her teams investigation into the warning system’s performance begins.
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