Gaylord begins storm cleanup

Michigan National Guard troops and state highway crews were expected to help with the clean up effort yesterday, said Jim Jacobs, chairperson of the Otsego County Board of Commissioners. Gov. John Engler approved the county's request to designate the city as a disaster area and toured the area yesterday, Jacobs said.

"That's great news. The city has got some serious problems. They just can't handle it with their crews alone," Jacobs told The Bay City Times.

The National Guard and machinery - trucks, wood-chipping equipment - were due in Gaylord yesterday afternoon "to clear the roads and get things moved," Engler spokesperson John Truscott said.

Michigan Army National Guard Maj. Jim McCrone said 32 engineers based in Bay City and Wyoming would head to Gaylord with 10 dump trucks, three front end loaders and wrecker to remove trees and debris. They are expected to stay in Gaylord through Friday.

Residents were taking their own initiative throughout the Gaylord area, where piles of gathered tree limbs lined many streets and people worked to the background noise of whining chain saws.

A day after a violent storm smashed their trailer home just west of Gaylord, Sheryl and Rob Daniels were boxing up belongings and taking stock of the damage Sunday.

The Daniels' home at the Nottingham Forest Mobile Home Park suffered some of the worst damage. Two large pine trees had fallen onto the trailer, buckling the roof.

He and his sister were working early Saturday afternoon when the storms hit.

"The roof is all caved in on my bedroom - you've got to crawl on your hands and knees to get in there," Rob Daniels said.

"I'm sure somebody would have gotten hurt if we were home."

Rosemarie Koronka and her son, Mike, were collecting limbs from a large maple tree that had snapped in half in the back yard of her home.

Koronka said she planted the tree 35 years ago and it had grown to stately proportions. On Saturday, it was gone in an instant.

"It just happened so fast. I turned around and everything outside was so black. Everything was churning around like it was a tornado," Koronka said.

"We've had high winds before, but nothing like this," said Koronka.

Mike Koronka said the storm seemed to come out of nowhere during an otherwise hazy, humid day.

"I've never seen clouds move so fast. They were just shooting across the sky," he said.

Betty Kratt and Grace Ross, of Eastpointe, were heading north on Interstate 75 to see Kratt's granddaughter play in a soccer game in Gaylord when they saw the storm clouds ahead in the distance.

"It was just a big, black cloud. I was teasing her because I said it could be a UFO up there in disguise," Kratt recalled.

Minutes later, they arrived in town to witness the damage wrought by the severe weather. The soccer game was postponed or Kratt's granddaughter and other children would have been outside in the path of the storm, Kratt said.

Jacobs said county officials do not have an accurate count of homes destroyed by the storm, although there are expected to be several. Scores of homes were damaged and assessors would likely have a cost estimate of all damage later in the week, he said.

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