Yikes!! My phone's weather alert just woke me up. We're under a TORNADO warning!!

[Siwsan]

Actually, I'm fine. We've had a lot of lightning but it's not particularly windy. The tornado was indicated south of me and very close to where my niece lives.

Earlier I checked the weather info and it said the chances of a tornado, during these storms, was extremely minimal. Apparently something changed.

The weather map shows the severe weather is rapidly leaving the area but I question whether I will be able to fall back to sleep! Sian is keeping me company.

[Bayard]

1. Dang!

Be safe! Your niece too.

[Siwsan]

2. I just got a message from my niece. They are fine

She said it got really windy and there is a lot of debris. Their power is out. There are a LOT of outages in the southern part of Genesee County.

Temps were in the 70's, yesterday, and might be in the 20's before evening, today. Absolute insanity.

[orleans]

8. you said "Temps were in the 70's, yesterday, and might be in the 20's before evening, today. Absolute insanity.

and you could have been talking about the chicago burbs

there was a TON of lightning and blinding rain and loud hail and wind.
i also think i heard the news say there were 7 tornadoes out and about tonight

stay safe!

[niyad]

3. I hope that the danger has passed and you are all safe.

[Siwsan]

5. The bad weather made a fast exit

My niece said the front part of the subdivision is being evacuated because of a gas leak!! They are in the back so they should be fine, but who knows. It sounds like the down town area is a real mess. If the power isn't restored in a few hours, she's headed here to get ready for work.

I've pretty much given up on getting any sleep. I'm going to stretch out on the living room couch so that if I do doze off, I'll hear her at the front door. She said she'd be here 'after 6'.

[blogslug]

4. I'm glad it passed over and you and your niece are safe

I hope her power comes on soon. Take care

[SunSeeker]

6. What area/state are you in? nt

[Siwsan]

7. Mid Michigan

The city of Grand Blanc, just south of Flint, was apparently hit by a tornado. Not sure of how much damage, yet, but lots of trees are down. I have a house there and my niece lives in it. No damage to the house but there's a gas leak in the front part of the subdivision so that area is being evacuated.

[SunSeeker]

11. Oh wow. Glad you made it through, but that gas leak sounds scary.

Good luck and stay safe!

[tornado34jh]

9. I used to live in Illinois (Gurnee/Waukegan) before, I have many weather stories from there

I remember one night we had a big hailstorm, you could literally hear it. But after that, several neighbors had to have their roofs replaced, we were lucky. We had floods that had closed all but one main road in and out of town. Just before we moved out, we had a supercell come up, rotating thunderstorm, yet no rain, but there was a funnel cloud. We used to have trouble with the basement flooding, although it was limited to one area luckily. We had ice, freezing rain, all that.

Where I lived, we used to be near Six Flags. One time we were there, thunderstorms rolled in, and everybody in my family got soaked.

[PortTack]

10. I saw the map....I'm just out of range. Haven't heard if there were any twisters or damage

[Siwsan]

12. LOTS of damage in Grand Blanc

I lived there for many years.

There aren't any reports of injuries - probably because of what time it happened (1:20 am).

My niece's power was just restored. Several school districts have canceled classes, today, including one right by me! Not sure why but when it's light I'll do a tour of the property to see if I lost any tree branches. Hopefully that is all. I had just fallen asleep about an hour before this happened so I was DEEP asleep and never even heard the thunder.