UPDATE: Nearly 25,000 without power in Kent County
WYOMING, MI – Without a basement in his tri-level home, Kevin Pollins rode the storm out in the stairwell as a tornado crashed through his neighborhood.
“There was just swoosh,” he said. “You could see it. You could definitely feel the pressure.”
He was certain that a tornado hit his neighborhood near 30th Street SW and Sharon Avenue on Saturday, Aug. 20.
He said trees and power lines made road impassable until a neighbor, Eric Kooistra, used a chain saw to clear the roads in two directions.
They live near Byron Center Avenue SW and 36th Street, probably one of the hardest hit areas. Police shut down 36th Street in both directions while gawkers and flooding slowed traffic to a crawl on Byron Center Avenue.
Trees were uprooted and snapped in two, many of them blocking roads. There were reports of trees falling on houses in the area. Street lights were out.
Pollins’ house was spared but his prized 1985 Monte Carlo SS was under a large maple tree limb.
Neighbor Andy Bloos had a hole in his roof. He was in Nunica, where sirens sounded, and raced home before the storm hit. He got in the basement, and feared he would find a lot of damage.
“I didn’t know what I was going to see when I looked up,” he said. “I could feel my house shaking and my roof buckling. You could hear things banging on the roof of the house.”
Neighbors walked by, checking on damage. No one had electricity.
Kooistra, with the chainsaw, said he watched the tornado go through. He watched several trees go down in an instant. He has a large limb from an old maple tree to cut down and hoped it wouldn’t hit his house.
First, he cleared trees that blocked the roads.
“Right after, no one could go out. Power lines that way, two trees that way.”
Pollins, his neighbor, was grateful: “He went to work. He needs to get the credit.”
By John Agar on August 20, 2016 at 5:24 PM, updated August 20, 2016 at 6:21 PM
Photo by John Agar “Kevin Pollins stand near his 1985 Monte Carlo SS that sustained damage when tree limbs fell on it during Saturday’s tornado.”
