PORTAGE, Mich. — The City of Portage is in crisis mode after an EF 2 tornado ripped through the city two nights ago.
100 people lost their homes. Luckily, no one lost their lives.
What's left of Timber Creek Townhouses is remarkable. Each one of the buildings had four housing units inside of them. Many who lived there lost their place to sleep at night. Thursday, FOX 17 spoke with a few people whose homes were spared, who are hoping they'll be able to stay.
“Destruction. It’s really bad. All of my neighbors were hit, really bad,” Haley French, a Timber Creek Court resident said.
Haley French knows she's got it good, comparatively.
“My house is very lucky, we didn’t get hit. Somehow it went all around us,” French said.
What surrounds Haley looks so bad you could believe it's fake. The set of a movie. But it's not. It's the very real remnants of Timber Creek Court.
“The fact that they kind of got the warning out quick helped save lives,” resident Lou Ann Dresen said.
Many lost nearly everything.
“I wasn’t expecting this amount of destruction in my neighborhood. I just moved in two months ago. It’s beautiful. We’ve been loving it here. Now, we might have to move out,” French said.
Linda Barber's red car is stuck in the garage.
“They said tornado tornado. The last time we had a tornado, what, a chair fell over,” Barber said.
Linda says she's one of the few spared here.
“My home, nothing’s wrong with it. I mean, one picture fell off the wall,” Barber said.
She's unsure if she'll be able to stay in her home, given the destruction that surrounds her.
“Where in the hell is all these people going to go? Places were scarce to begin with. Let alone out the roof,” Barber said.
U.S. Congressman Bill Huizenga also stopped by the neighborhood to see the damage first hand.
“Getting out and seeing what’s going on, has been vital. So we can relay that to FEMA and to others and work with the state department,” Huizenga said.
Federal help is still a ways away from coming. First steps, like the governor declaring a state of emergency, are underway.
“That’s the biggest challenge, frankly. Is the time and the length of time it takes,” Huizenga said.
People who live at Timber Creek are left wondering even though their homes were spared, will they be able to stay?
"I’m staying at my son’s,” Barber said.
Congressmen Huizenga told FOX 17 that it's times like this when he's most grateful for resources like the American Red Cross who can provide help almost immediately following disasters like this one. We did see the American Red Cross at Timber Creek on Thursday.
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