glen arbor tornado

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The birds knew

As I listened to the rustle of the trees, I could feel that the air was unsettled, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. There weren’t any bird noises — which is unusual as normally the morning noises include the chirps of the finches, cardinals and an occasional screech of a passing heron or an obnoxious blue jay. This humid morning, however, there was only sound of the rustle of leaves coming from the on shore breeze as it swirled through the trees and out across the bay. I didn’t know what it was, but I sensed things were off. Little did I anticipate it being the wild storms our shores were about to weather.

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Breaking Points

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After the shock of entering the dense-leaved maple canopy sheared to the ground and shouldered aside like the dead dropped in their tracks, after all that what I finally see are breaking points. The storm’s catastrophe bars comprehension except in stages, but every moment our eyes are open it becomes more real: massive trunks stacked like proverbial pick up sticks — all cliché but what else do I have in the first moments of first seeing? But this is no game. Still, I am so stunned I have no fresh language to describe this — it’s all too dense, thick with damage. The heart aches and the mind can’t find the way to the words, or even the real. When do I see the breaking points? The crack and twist, wood’s open wounds, the new right angle that is all wrong for the verticality of a tree. Not until the end.

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Apocalypse of Trees

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“Where were you when . . .?” None of us will ever forget, and so now we will always trade our stories of this shared local tragedy. Waiting for Kelly McAllister to make me a malted, I gazed through the windows of McCahill’s Crossing Dairy Bar at the Glen Lake Narrows to see the eerie white cloud front race at terrific speed eastward across Little Glen Lake. Instantly the air was a greenish blue-black chaos of horizontal hail, thick rain, and leaves. Heedless of the danger, we gawked out the big windows at plunging power lines, frantic trees, and the growing line of cars refusing to cross the narrows and the bridge they couldn’t see because the lake was airborne. When the lights went out for good Kelly calmly called Consumers on her cell. We only had to inch around one tree as we drove homeward on Benzonia Trail minutes later. Countless others were not so lucky, and their stories have been our daily bread for a frantically memorable, strange, and communal cleanup of a week.

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Community Resilience: How Glen Arbor picked itself up after the megastorm

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During one extraordinary week in August 2015, the sounds that dominated our town were the whirr of winds and the ugly crack of trees, followed by the buzz of chainsaws, the hum of generators, and the cheering and car honking as Consumers Power trucks and linemen rolled into town like a liberating army.

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Storm cleanup’s second phase lacks funds

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Townspeople are ebullient as they embark on an unfathomable cleanup task. Landowners with five, 10, 20 or more trees to remove are looking at a cost of thousands of dollars; in many cases, tens of thousands. Most insurance companies cover only a small portion — if any — of tree and brush removal that is not threatening insured structures or blocking roads.

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Photos sought for book chronicling Glen Arbor storm

It was a hundred-years storm. Thin trees snapped like matchsticks; thick ones toppled, one atop another, like felled soldiers. The storm’s straight-wind blast left houses with gaping holes, thousands of residents with no power for days, a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore that is, said one official, unrecognizable, and a cleanup that could take years. Mission Point Press, a Traverse City publisher, will soon release a book chronicling the historic event of Sunday afternoon, August 2.

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What’s the future of Alligator Hill Trail

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What will the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore do with the Alligator Hill trail west of downtown Glen Arbor, which was decimated in the Aug. 2 megastorm. Hundreds of trees fell during the windstorm, punching enormous holes in the canopy and rendering the popular hiking trail unrecognizable.

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Which Glen Arbor roads are impassable

The Aug. 2, 2015, super storm that hit Glen Arbor dropped hundreds of old-growth trees on nearby roads, making it difficult to access our town. Particular trouble spots are M-22 south of Glen Arbor and Dunn’s Farm Road, between the Foothills Motel and Miller Hill.

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Glen Arbor hit by knockout storm

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Glen Arbor was hit by a tornado on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 2. Winds of 93 miles per hour reported pummeled the town next to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at the height of the summer tourism season. As of Sunday night, the Glen Lake Fire Department was reporting that all roads into Glen Arbor, and around the Glen Lakes, are impassible. The Fire Department says clearing the trees and debris from the storm may take all night.

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