Flash Flood — St. Clair, Michigan

1996-06-22 · near Nrn 1/2 of Co., St. Clair, Michigan

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed along a warm front across central lower Michigan during the evening on the 21st. The storms moved southeast across the Saginaw Valley and the thumb region during the period from late evening on the 21st through the early morning hours of the 22d. The result was an extremely damaging weather event, as flash flooding caused millions of dollars of damge to property, and 3 documented tornadoes touched down. The worst damage was done to the resort town of Frankenmuth, where an F3 tornado caused about 5 million dollars of damage. The tornado completly destroyed 4 houses, and damaged 130 others. Miraculously, no one was injured or killed. Elsewhere, tornadoes damaged homes in Lapeer and Saint Clair counties, and strong straight line winds uprooted trees in northern Genesee county, and did severe damage to a mobile home dealership in southern Bay county. Flash flooding was widespread throughout the Saginaw Vally and the thumb region as well. In Bay county, an elderly man was killed when his car was swept from a bridge while he was attempting to cross the Kawkawlin river. Elsewhere, flooding did widespread damage to roads and houses. Particularly hard hit were the many farmers in the area. The preceding spring had been extremely wet, and flooding from this event continued to delay planting in some areas, while damaging or destroying crops in other areas. Dollar damage amounts were difficult to estimate until the growing season actually came to an end, but initial rough estimates placed total damage to crops in the area at several million dollars.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5551883. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.