Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office Assess Tornado Response in Dexter

The Village of Dexter and local first responders received high praise from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office for their diligent preparation and response to an March 15.

Mark Breckinridge, director of emergency services for the sheriff's office, gave credit to the county's emergency operations center workers and tornado sirens, which he said were two major factors in preventing fatalities in the area.

"The severe thunderstorm watch came in at 4:30 p.m. and we immediately activated our emergency operations center and all of our Skywarn spotters who were available. We were monitoring the storm in southern Livingston County County, so we knew it was going to be a bad weather day," Breckinridge explained.

At 5:07 p.m. a tornado warning was indicated by the county's Doppler radar system, which generated a tornado warning for northern Washtenaw County, and by 5:26 p.m. a trained weather spotter reported a funnel cloud near Dexter. At 5:28 p.m. a tornado warning was issued for all of Washtenaw County, triggering the storm sirens for a second time.

"Dexter residents had two siren alerts that day. By 5:33 p.m. we had positive confirmation of a tornado on the ground. So between 5:07 p.m. and 5:33 p.m., there was significant warning time for residents and we like that," Breckinridge said.

At its strongest form, Breckinridge said the F3 tornado had a 400-yard wide path of damaging winds on the ground northwest of the village.

"The good thing was that the tornado was not an F3 for its entire path," Breckinridge. "It was just a miracle that the tornado changed paths and strength, so you had a lot of factors adding up in Dexter's favor."

Breckinridge said the total damage reported in response to the disaster was $1.4 million, with the Washtenaw County Road Commission, Village of Dexter, and Huron-Clinton Metroparks reporting a large percentage of the losses.

In total, 23 homes are reporting major damage, 45 homes are reporting minor damage, and 185 homes are reporting some damage due to the storm. Four businesses were damaged and $427,000 worth of trees were also damaged.

Breckinridge said the data has been submitted to the Michigan State Police Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division and Gov. Rick Snyder's office in order to seek eligibility for state disaster funds.

"Ultimately it's up to Gov. Snyder to decide, but there is $519,000 in the state's budget line item. So if the state wants to fund it, the money is there," he said.