COLUMBIAVILLE -- A likely tornado left uprooted trees, missing shingles and ping-pong ball-sized hail in its wake in Columbiaville in northwestern Lapeer County Thursday evening.
Stunned neighbors described what happened in a matter of minutes.
"I told my wife to get the kids downstairs,” said Mike Cableman, who lives on Stanley road. “I noticed the winds were pretty bad, from looking at the flag pole. Then I went down and joined them, that's when I heard a big crack.” A pine tree in Cableman’s front yard fell over, fortunately, away from his house.
It was all over in about 20 minutes that started with large hail and strong wind gusts.
“The kids were watching in amazement,” Cableman said of the over-sized hail that damaged some residents’ cars.
The wind knocked out power to residents and blew shingles and siding off houses.
But neighbors who emerged from their basements and surveyed the damage in the last few minutes of daylight said they were relieved, because it could have been much worse. The National Weather Service is expected to survey the damage Friday morning.
