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EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - For some of the 250 soldiers in the Michigan National Guard’s 3rd Battalion, Friday’s deployment ceremony felt familiar. For others, it was their first time preparing to leave home and their families behind.

Held inside Demonstration Hall on Michigan State University’s campus, the sendoff event was filled with emotion: pride in service, heavy hearts, and tearful goodbyes.

“For half of the troops, or a little over, this is their first deployment,” said Lt. Stephen Chan, a commander in the Army National Guard. “There’s probably a very big mix of nervousness and excitement, and anticipation, with a little bit of early homesickness, I’ll call it.”

The 3rd Battalion soldiers will initially deploy to a base in the Middle East. From there, they’ll rotate to various missions as needed. Before they leave, they undergo months of physical and tactical preparation.

“We do annual Army fitness tests,” Chan said. “The training evaluations and exercises are very demanding, especially for infantry.”

But no amount of preparation can fully brace families for the moment of separation.

Brock Farber, who’s heading out on his second deployment, stood beside his fiancée, Abigail Gebben, as they shared an emotional goodbye.

“It’s gonna be a lot more difficult this time,” Farber said. “Because I have a fiancé.

“I’m very proud of him,” Gebben added through tears. “It’s going to be hard. I’m here and supporting him, and I love him.”

Nearby, Sergeant Jeremy Lincoln said goodbye to his two young daughters and his wife, who is pregnant with their third child.

Through deployments like this one, each one brings its own emotional weight and its own unique mission.

“How do you prepare for something like this?” Farber said. “Leaving for 9 months, 10 months...however long they need us.”

For families, the mission doesn’t stop at the base; it continues in every moment without their loved ones, every school morning, every quiet dinner, every bedtime story read over video call.

“Remember where they’re at,” said Lincoln. “And always think of them, because they’re always thinking about you.”

The majority of the soldiers are expected to return home in 2026.

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LANSING — The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down north of Charlotte and moved north toward Lansing while a band of thunderstorms swept across the state on the night of May 15.

A survey team on May 16 determined the twister touched down "just north of Charlotte" and passed to a spot "north of Dimondale and near Waverly," the weather agency's Brandon Hoving said.

As of late afternoon May 16, three tornadoes had been confirmed in southern Michigan, Hoving said. One of those happened in an area between Galesburg and Battle Creek, and the other occurred just north of there, near Bedford, he said. Both were EF-0 tornadoes, the weakest classification.

An EF-1 tornado has wind speeds ranging from 86 mph to 110 mph.

The weather service had earlier said windspeeds in Lansing reached 61 miles per hour around 11:42 p.m. as the storm passed through the area, said Joe Ceru, a NWS meteorologist.

The late-night line of storms moved across the Lansing area and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people.

Across the Lansing area, emergency agencies reported that trees and limbs were down and there were some overnight road closures because of debris and downed power lines.

Ingham County Deputy Emergency Manager Rob Dale said some of the worst damage appeared to be in Eaton County, particularly along a line from Vermontville to Potterville to Delta Township, he said. The National Weather Service team was expected to survey the damage there in the afternoon, Dale said.

Another round of storms was expected on Friday night, May 16, but they were not forecast to be as severe as those from the night before.

Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at mjmencarini@lsj.com.

and last updated 10:30 AM, May 16, 2025

The Grand Rapids National Weather Service Office has issued their Preliminary Storm Reports from last night's severe weather event. Overall, our northern neighborhoods saw a lot of wind damage causing power outages and fallen debris on roadways.

Starting in Waverly, Emergency Management reported a Tornado located on Millet Highway between S Canal Rd. and South Creyts Rd.. This area saw a semi truck overturned as well as spotter reports of power flashing. This are aligns with the radar debris signature at the time. This radar confirmation is still awaiting damage assessment before it receives an official rating on the EF-Scale.

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT THE EF-SCALE IS BELOW

Other main impacts included our winds which caused quite a lot of damage across our neighborhoods. Below, you can see the remainder of the preliminary storm reports issued by the National Weather Service Friday morning.

We saw a lot more tree damage across Lansing this morning including a brief closure on I-496 in the 3 AM hour of Friday due to downed power lines. Below is images across Lansing with debris from this morning.

INTERSECTION OF WALNUT AND HILLSDALE

ACROSS DOWNTOWN LANSING

FORECAST UPDATE

This afternoon will bring plenty of sunshine with our high temperatures warming into the 80's. An area of low pressure will track east towards northern Michigan, driving another round of thunderstorms into our area.

WATCH THE FULL FORECAST BELOW

By sunset, our present instability in the atmosphere will begin to decrease as elevated wind shear will allow for potential damaging winds up to 55 mph. This could cause some more storm damage to limbs or power lines that are close to falling. There is also a chance for hail this evening as well. We also can't eliminate the chance for a tornado in our neighborhoods this evening. The tornado threat is much lower than Thursday night's due to the lack of moisture. The Storm Prediction Center currently has all of our neighborhoods under a Slight Risk for severe weather this evening.

Timing for these storms is from 9PM to 2AM Friday night. Once this area of low pressure exits our area, we will cool down with highs in the mid to lower 60's. Tame showers are possible throughout the day Saturday with low impacts expected.

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LANSING — Lansing Board of Water & Light General Manager Dick Peffley said some customers who lost power in overnight storms may not have power restored until Wednesday, May 21.

A late-night line of storms that moved across the Lansing region left more than 32,000 customers in the area without power. That number stood at about 30,000 as of 3 p.m. on May 16.

Severe thunderstorms that prompted tornado warnings in several communities late the evening of May 15 and in the early morning hours of May 16 produced high winds and heavy rains, and the resulting power outages caused several school closures.

Statewide, more than 223,000 customers had their power interrupted by the storms. As of 3 p.m. May 16, Consumer's Energy was reporting about 17,500 customers in Greater Lansing were without power. The utility was estimating restoration for Lansing-area customers by Saturday, May 17.

BWL at one point early Friday, May 16, had about 24,000 customers without power, with restoration times estimated for May 21. By 3 p.m., that number was down to about 12,200.

Peffley said earlier on May 16 that good weather conditions could allow crews to restore 10,000 customers by the end the day.

"That'd be a good day," he said.

But Peffley said there was extensive damage in Delta Township, Lansing and East Lansing and it would take time for crews to fully restore power. Additional storms expected later May 16 had the potential to interrupt restoration efforts, Peffley said, since crews cannot work when there is lightning or winds above 30 miles an hour for safety reasons.

BWL said it would prioritize hospitals, urgent care facilities, water pumping facilities, police and fire departments, wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations. After those services are restored, the utility will restore service to circuits with the largest number of customers before addressing smaller pockets of outages.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said he anticipated seeking a disaster declaration to access funds for recovery, to help compensate for the overtime from city and utility workers.

Drivers were encouraged to use Kalamazoo Street or Lake Lansing Road to move east to west across the region, as East Grand River Avenue was closed in spots and Saginaw Street had numerous lights out. Michigan Avenue between University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Hospital and East Lansing is under construction.

Power outages and tree damage were the biggest impacts in the Lansing area, and about 10% to 20% of Ingham County was without power on Friday morning, said Rob Dale, deputy emergency manager for Ingham County. There were no reported injuries or major damage to structures, he said.

“The power outages are going to be the big deal,” he said.

Some of the worst damage appeared to be in Eaton County, particularly along a line from Vermontville to Potterville to Delta Township, he said. A National Weather Service team was expected to survey the damage there in the afternoon, Dale said.

Another round of storms was expected Friday evening, May 16, but they were not expected to be as severe as those from the night before.

Residents should make sure they stay away from power lines, Dale said. Even those that might have been dead could be re-energized at any time as repairs are being made, he said.

Fonda Brewer, Delta Township's supervisor, said her community had a lot of damage from huge fallen trees and downed power lines.

"If you heard that emergency warning last night, I hope you paid attention because this was the real deal," Brewer said.

Across the Lansing area, emergency agencies reported that trees and limbs were down and there were some overnight road closures because of debris and downed power lines.

MORE:Did tornado pass through Lansing area? NWS sends survey teams to investigate

Consumer's Energy had more than 6,250 customers in the Lansing area without power, and more than 189,000 customers were affected statewide. Much of the damage was in West Michigan.

DTE Energy, which has Lansing area customers in Webberville, Williamston and areas to the east along Interstate 96, was reporting more than 600 Lansing-area customers without power and more than 9,000 statewide. That number was down to about 375 as of 3 p.m. May 16. No restoration times were listed online.

Additionally, Homeworks Tri-County Electric, a rural coop that serves rurals areas around Lansing, said on its online outage map that 1,525 customers lost power, including more than 800 in the Lansing region. As of 3 p.m. May 16, the coop was reporting about 60 Lansing-area customers were still without electric service.

Several schools, including Lansing Community College East and East Lansing canceled classes May 16 because of power outages, and the Lansing School District canceled classes at several schools as well.

Andy Kilpatrick, Lansing's public works director, said the city had received gotten about 60 calls for fallen trees, limbs or other right of way obstructions and there were many more than haven't been formally reported.

On Mahlon Street - near Lansing's Groesbeck golf course, which also was damaged - city officials spoke to neighbors and news media on the blocked road.

Rico Harris splayed out his tarot cards on the hood of a car, as the officials finished a news conference.

"A good sign," Harris said, looking at the cards, which he said were giving hopeful signs of recovery and good tidings.

Harris said he was enjoying watching the lightning show the evening before until it became more serious.

"There was a bright green-turquoise flash and we figured it was electrical," Harris said, and he scooped up his nephews and everyone went to the basement for shelter.

Several trees fell on houses and cars on the street, including Hope Perez's son's car.

"It went dark, like you hear about how it gets dark in a storm but this was where we couldn't see anything," she said.

Perez said she could hear the whistles of the wind and the scattering debris outside but could only imagine the damage until it was safe to peek outside more than an hour later.

Michigan saw dangerous winds from a strong band of storms that swept through the state overnight on Thursday, May 15, into Friday morning, May 16, including a report at the Battle Creek Executive Airport of 75-mph gusts.

The thunderstorms caused power outages across the state, with more than 250,000 customers affected, according to power outage maps.

Officials also issued tornado warnings across at least 16 counties in the Lower Peninsula. NWS officials have not yet issued confirmation on whether tornadoes touched down in Michigan. The weather service said there may have been several "weak" tornadoes during the storms.

Winds were strong enough to topple trees, and damage to houses.

Statewide, sustained winds were clocked as high as 40 mph or more. Battle Creek saw the strongest winds, with 75 mph gusts and 47 mph sustained winds.

Here's more on wind speeds across Michigan, according to the National Weather Service:

How windy did it get last night in Michigan?

According to the NWS, here are the highest observed winds on May 15:

Grand Rapids:

Lansing:

Muskegon:

Kalamazoo:

Battle Creek:

Holland:

Jackson:

Detroit:

Flint:

Saginaw:

Alpena:

Houghton Lake:

Sault Ste. Marie:

Traverse City:

Marquette:

Was there a tornado in Michigan last night?

Tornado confirmation is underway in Michigan as residents send in videos or photo from late on May 15, and as officials work to make distinctions.

"NWS survey crews will fan out to make tornado determinations over the next day or two. Our best estimate is that Michigan may have had 5-10 weak tornadoes during last night's event," Great Lakes Weather and Climate said on Facebook

Michigan Storm Chasers said lower Michigan may have seen 10-15 or more tornadoes in a Facebook post.

What damage can 75 mph winds cause?

According to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (a wind scale from 1-5) from the NWS, here's estimations of damage based on sustained wind speed:

Contact Sarah Moore @ smoore@lsj.com