Tornadoes roll through, flooding left behind

WEST MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The storms on Friday did a number on West Michigan.

The National Weather Service says three confirmed tornadoes touched down in our area, one in Allegan County and two in Kalamazoo County.

The tornado that hit the Richland area Friday night ripped the roof off a home and took down a number of trees.

A twister in northwest Kalamazoo County destroyed a building there.

The tornado that landed about four miles southwest of Allegan destroyed one home and blew the roof off another.

Fortunately no one was hurt.

The flooding left behind by those storms is still causing some big problems Monday morning. Many might have to go the long way to work.

On 24th Street near Lincoln in Holland, the M-DOT signs explain it all. The road was washed out by all that rain. There's a huge drop off at the bottom of the hill.

There are still several other roads in the Holland area that are shut down due to flooding. Those include 24th Street between Waverly and Country Club and also 32nd Street near Old Orchard Road.

There are also still some significant problems in Ionia where the B-93 Birthday Bash was a bust after rising river waters caused the grass parking areas to flood. Hundreds of cars are stuck with no way out.

Some of those cars are sitting full of water.

Many car owners stayed in shelters over the weekend because they have no way to get home.

"How are we supposed to get home, and then if it's damaged, what's it going to take to fix it," asked Aaron Phillips, who stayed at one of the shelters.

"[I] hope and pray that when we get to our car, it will run so we can get home from there," said Danielle Phillips.

It might be Wednesday before people are able to even get to their cars to assess the damage there.

It was definitely not the fun time those folks expected to have this weekend.

We are told some of the roads that were closed over the weekend should be re-opening as early as Monday morning in the Holland area.

In some areas though the road has to be re-built before any cars will pass through there again.