Storm Violence Hit Hardest at Site of Family Picnic

GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. —  Just minutes after picnickers were warned to leave a lakeside park, winds of more than 90 mph tore the roof off a wooden gazebo and hurled 13 family members into the water, killing five, one of a string of tragedies caused by a night of violent storms and tornadoes that battered parts of three Midwest states.

Abdo Algahim, 43, lost his wife and two of his children Wednesday night as they tried to enjoy a simple summer pleasure: an evening meal outdoors.

“You know how the kids are--begging they want to have a picnic,” said relative Mohamed Algahim.

“It just got real dark, real windy, real loud, and pieces of trees and everything were just flying all over,” said Jeff Gerow, a security guard at Pier Park. “I got hit in the face by a purse. It was so dark you could hardly see.”

A chain-link fence that prevents people from entering the lake was crushed, apparently by the force of the shelter’s wooden roof, which landed in the water. The shore was littered with trees, red wagons and trees mangled to the roots. After the storm passed, rescuers walked hand-in-hand through Lake St. Clair looking for bodies.

The victims were Algahim’s wife, Asma, 55; 1-year-old son, Mohamed; 3-month-old daughter, Rukia; sister-in-law Nabiha Algahim, about 30; and her son Zakria, 10. Eight family members were injured, including Abdo Algahim, who suffered a broken rib and a collapsed lung.

The storm in this affluent Detroit suburb was the deadliest in a wave of heavy rain and high winds that strafed Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, uprooting trees, lifting houses off foundations and killing 10 people, including the members of the Algahim family.

Michigan Gov. John Engler declared a state of emergency and asked for federal disaster assistance to help recover from widespread destruction caused by winds of up to 100 mph.

“We’re also activating the National Guard to help the cleanup effort because that is a mission they have handled effectively in the past,” Engler said after touring some of the hardest-hit areas.

Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer said a lawn service worker was killed when he stepped on a downed power line. In a suburb north of the city, a 79-year-old man was electrocuted fiddling with the sump pump in his flooded basement.

About 200,000 people were still without power in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, down from about 315,000 at the peak of the crisis.

Outages knocked out roadway pumps, which led to flooding and traffic snarls throughout the area Thursday morning.

Many roads remained blocked by trees or flooded. State police were patrolling heavily and asking people for identification.

Ron Barber of suburban Milford was sweeping up glass in front of his shoe store. He said looters took several pairs of shoes after the store’s display windows were blown out.

“I’ve been in this town since I was 18 years old and have never seen anything like this,” said Barber, 63.

More than 10 mobile homes were destroyed, 50 were damaged and a 37-year-old woman was killed when high wind and heavy rain pummeled a trailer park near Holly, about midway between Detroit and Flint.

Jay Welch saw the funnel cloud approach the store he owns next to the pummeled mobile home parks.

“We saw a rain of leaves--it looked so beautiful,” he said. “Then came the evil.”

Danielle Dykes, whose trailer home was spared, said, “It looked like ‘The Wizard of Oz’--everything was flying in the air.”

Five homes were destroyed in Madison County in central Indiana and 30 others were damaged. Several homes were heavily damaged in Clermont County in southeast Ohio, where a tornado skipped along a 10-mile path. Electrical power and telephone service was also knocked out in some areas.

Michigan officials said a total of 105 people in five counties were injured, 42 of them in Detroit. Across the state, 84 homes were destroyed, more than 400 homes and businesses were damaged and 350 people were left homeless.

Archer said that after the storms passed, the city remained relatively quiet, but he warned that any looters would be dealt with harshly.

In Plymouth, west of Detroit in Oakland County, a local courthouse was destroyed by a raging fire caused by downed power lines. In Hamtramck, a working-class community bordering Detroit, roofs were torn off entire blocks of homes. Trees were uprooted and shattered glass littered streets.