Severe storms hit parts of Cheboygan County Sunday night, leaving behind a mess and even an injury.
9&10’s Aaron Parseghian is live at the Black Lake Forest State Campground, an area that got hit very hard.
It’s a peaceful day at Black Lake, but things were much different Sunday night.
Much of the area is cleaned up, but campers who witnessed the storm, have been telling us that the wind and rain were so strong Sunday night, they couldn’t see the water from about where I’m standing.
“I don’t know if you’d call it catastrophic or not but huge big trees down uprooted big brick walls, it’s pretty devastating,” Gil Archambo, Sturgeon for Tomorrow said.
A scary night for many in Cheboygan County, with hundreds of trees uprooted by storms.
At Black Lake Forest State Campground, the storm overturned boats, damaged RVs, and sent one man to the hospital after being hit by a tree.
“I was closing the windows cause the rain was coming, I didn’t even get the second window closed and it started hailing, and the wind just out of nowhere, it was shaking the camper, you could hear trees breaking, smashing into stuff and it was done really fast, destruction everywhere,” Tina Prall said.
The campground was shut down for a couple of hours as crews cleaned up the mess.
“Nobody could get in or out for a while. I heard sirens, there was DNR and police everywhere, making sure everybody was OK,” Tina said.
Just up the road from Black Lake, more problems.
“The trees are down just tremendous, I started about 9 o’ clock this [Monday] morning, got no idea what time it is now, I’m still not even back there yet just cutting trees, Gill said.
Aloha Township’s Fire Station got their roof torn off by the winds, pieces still hanging in the trees.
Witnesses say the damage resembles that of a tornado.
“Not quite like this, at one point when I was a little kid there was a tornado go from one end of the lake to the other, but that didn’t even do the damage that this has done, there’s big trees down all across the roads,” Gill said.
“I heard branches hitting the windows, and just snap, snap, just crazy! I was just standing in there hoping. I got very lucky,” Tina said.
We’ll keep you updated on the status of the man who was hurt during the storm.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
