Local/Regional News

Kalamazoo County completes its assessment of tornado damage; FEMA to survey the damage

WMUK | By Michael Symonds

Published May 14, 2024 at 11:40 AM EDT

A house in Portage, in the path of the tornado, is left completely destroyed. Despite the destruction, there were no fatalities and no life-threatening injuries from the May 7 tornado.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be visiting Kalamazoo County to survey the damage from the May 7th tornado.

The Kalamazoo County Office of Emergency Management has completed its preliminary damage assessment: 49 homes destroyed, 118 suffered major damage and another 129 with minor damage. That’s not including multi-family buildings like apartments.

Emergency Management Director Mike Corfman said viewing it for himself was eye-opening.

“Until I actually started walking in and we started doing damage assessment, did we really realize it. Wow. Yeah, they said this was an F2 tornado, but it was one mile an hour short from being an F3.”

In addition to the 49 homes destroyed, 3 business structures were destroyed during the tornado, with another 10 taking major damage.

Corfman added FEMA is on their way to do their own assessment and confirm the county's numbers.

Arriving Tuesday, Corfman said the FEMA assessment will be a more in-depth analysis to determine how much federal assistance is needed.

“We're taking this a little bit more personal, and we're trying as hard as we can to get the proper aid that we need from the federal government and all of our other partners.”

Corfman added that FEMA hopes to complete its assessment by Friday.

Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.