Quick storm lashes Belleville area, leaves damage in its wake

A severe thunderstorm with hail whipped through the tri-community Thursday afternoon and was gone in minutes leaving the sun shining as emergency crews responded to damage reports.
Just before the storm hit, Belleville, Sumpter Township, and Van Buren Township sounded their warning sirens to alert the public to the fast-approaching storm.
At 1:23 p.m., Sumpter Township police sent out a Nixle alert warning of a severe thunderstorm approaching from the west with 60 mph winds and damaging hail. People were warned to take immediate cover.
The storm hit downtown Belleville at about 1:30 p.m. with lashing winds, lots of rain, and small hailstones. The storm was gone in about 14 minutes and then the sun came out. A second, smaller storm went through a few minutes later.
And, the dispatch calls started coming into the fire departments, including:
• 1:41 p.m. – downed wires arcing, Martinsville/Willis area;
• 1:41 p.m. – tree limb through trailer roof, 2 Ash St.’
• 1:42 p.m. – tree over roadway in front of fire station on Belleville Road, fire fighters removed it at once;
• 1:42 p.m. – tree blocking road at West Huron River Drive and Fairview Ct.;
• 1:44 p.m. – house fire at 20400 Martinsville Rd., no one in home but cats;
• 1:45 p.m. – large tree blocking Sumpter Road north of Bemis;
• 2 p.m. – wire arcing and burning on Ryznar Dr., almost to the end of roadway;
• 2:01 p.m. – electrical pole on fire at 44001 Harris Rd.;
• 2:21 p.m. – tree over roadway at 202 Aberdeen Ct., cleared by police department before fire department got there;
• 2:30 p.m. – line down, possibly communications line, on E. Columbia Ave.;
• 2:30 p.m. – tree or branch down over railroad tracks, notify railroad company;
• 2:36 – wire down at Rawsonville/Bog area, along trailers, across street from Pinter’s;
• 2:44 p.m. – arcing transformer in rear of daycare, 1000 Savage Rd.;
• 2:45 p.m. – tree over road in Martinsville/Fret area, a lot of debris on shoulder of road; and
• 3:09 p.m. – branches in road at Sumpter/Hull.
According to a reading at a weather station on Haggerty Road, the storm dropped 1.15 inches of rain in its first phase.
About 30,000 electrical customers were reported by DTE to have lost electrical power in the storm, including 539 on W. Huron River Dr. and south, 3,953 on Rawsonville Road and west, 72 in Victoria Commons, and 31 along Bak Road to Bemis. Some power was expected to be restored by about 5:30 p.m. Thursday and some Friday afternoon.
More than 1,313 customers from just west of Hannan Road in Van Buren Township lost power and then the outage area stretched into Romulus and Huron Township to the east and south. Many areas of Sumpter Township were still without power on Friday morning.
A Belleville driver told television news that he pulled over when the storm hit because of poor visibility. He said he had his two dogs in the car and he put his body over them in case the hail pounding down on his car broke his windshield. He wanted to protect them from shattered glass, he said.