Three people killed and three hospitalized as Michigan town hit by tornado

Three people have been killed and three were taken to a hospital after a tornado hit a southern Michigan town on Friday, authorities said.Powerful storms ripped across the state, tearing the roof off a home improvement store, sending parts of a storage building flying and knocking down trees as warnings were issued across the southern part of the state.The Branch County Sheriff’s Office said there were 12 reported injuries and three deaths after a tornado appeared to have hit the Union City area which is about 125 miles (200km) west of Detroit.In St Joseph county, Michigan, next to the Indiana border, the sheriff’s office told residents to “seek shelter immediately” after confirmed reports of a tornado touching down in Union City about 4.40pm, a severe thunderstorm watch and possible winds more than 60mph (96.6km/h).“Citizens should anticipate power outages, closed roadways and/or neighborhoods and cellular/internet interruptions,” the Michigan-state-police" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="14654" data-entity-type="organization">Michigan State Police said in a social media post.At her home near Union City, Lisa Nicola can be heard repeatedly yelling out, “Oh my God,” as she films from her back deck a ferocious rotating column of air that appears to be a tornado tear through an section of buildings across the lake from her.As its size grows, pulling large pieces of debris into the air, she says: “It’s lifting houses.”“Oh my heart is pounding,” she says in the video. “Oh, I hope they’re OK.”The state activated its emergency operations center as officials responded to serious wind damage and reports of injuries in multiple south-west Michigan counties.Powerful storms were forming Friday afternoon in Michigan and all the way to North Texas. There were no immediate confirmed reports of a tornado on the ground, but many videos posted online showed violent, rotating columns of air in Michigan.In an eerie scene captured on video Thursday, a first responder drove straight at a storm near the western Oklahoma town of Fairview, where flashes of lightning illuminated a giant funnel that appeared to reach the ground. That storm, among the first outbreaks of severe weather on the verge of the spring storm season, was filmed by a camera mounted on the deputy’s car.Nearby, a 47-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter from Fairview were found dead in a vehicle near an intersection of a highway and a county road at about 10pm. Thursday, authorities said. The crash “appears to be tornado-related”, Sarah Stewart, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma highway patrol, said in a statement.“Severe weather struck Major county last night and tragically claimed the lives of a mother and daughter,” Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt said in a statement on Friday. “I am praying for the family as they grieve this tragic loss, as well as all those impacted by the storms.”The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, planned to send out a damage survey crew Friday to see whether Thursday night’s storms were confirmed tornadoes, meteorologist Ryan Bunker said. “As of right now, we’re still investigating that.”More than 7 million Americans were at the highest risk of severe weather Friday in an area that includes the metropolitan areas of Kansas City, Missouri; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Omaha, Nebraska, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. Nearly 25 million people were at a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.