At least 5 d e a d in Michigan after severe storms

At least five people died in Michigan after severe storms on Thursday night brought heavy rain, strong wind gusts and seven tornadoes.

Three people — a woman, 21, and two girls, 3 and 1 — were killed in a car accident on Thursday night in Kent County in Western Michigan, according to Sgt. Eric Brunner, a spokesman for the Kent County Sheriff’s Office. A man in the car was seriously injured.

Two more were killed in Ingham County, in the central part of the state, the county’s emergency management department said in a post on Facebook. One of the deaths occurred in Lansing, and the other was along Interstate 96. Additional injuries occurred in vehicles on the interstate, the post said, adding that people should be careful of the many power lines that are still down.

“Assume they are all LIVE and do not approach them, do not drive around barricaded roads, and use care when cleaning up debris,” the post said.

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Two of the tornadoes were in the Grand Rapids area and five were in the Detroit office area, the National Weather Service said.

The Weather Service had warned on Thursday that wind gusts may be up to 70 miles per hour. Nearly 450,000 customers in Michigan were still without power on Friday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which aggregates data from utilities across the United States.

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