Portage Tornado

A tornado touched down less than a mile from our house tonight. The National Weather Service had issues a tornado watch so fortunately, all after school activities were cancelled.  The warning came around 5:30pm and the boys, Winger, and I went to the basement (Phil was I. Grand Rapids).  The lights started to flicker, the sky turned a green/grey color, and the rain and hail started.  The power went out and we were able to come up a little after 6.  Then we started receiving reports that the neighborhood across Centre had been hit and that the tornado had travelled down Centre Ave and caused a lot of damage at Oakland and Westnedge.  So many trees are down around town and a lot of businesses and homes are damaged.  School has been closed for the remainder of the week due to power outages and unsafe/blocked roads.