Michigan
Whitmer named Michigan State University’s spring commencement speaker
East Lansing ― Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz said Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an MSU alumna, will be speaking at the university’s spring 2026 graduation ceremony.
Whitmer will be speaking at MSU’s spring undergraduate convocation, which is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Friday, May 1, at the Breslin Center.
Whitmer is a two-time MSU graduate, earning both her bachelor’s and law degrees from MSU.
Whitmer has been the governor since 2019.
Christopher Fernandez was announced as the speaker for the university’s master’s and educational specialist ceremony, scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 1 at Breslin Center.
Fernandez is a member of MSU’s School of Human Resources & Labor Relations Advisory Board, which he served as president of from 2014-16. He also runs a company called Agentic Connect, which is focused on individuals in the labor market realizing a direct benefit from a human-centered artificial intelligence approach.
Ann Austin, university distinguished professor for the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education, will be speaking at the doctoral ceremony for the university, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. May 1 at the Breslin Center.
Austin has served on the faculty in higher, adult and lifelong education in the College of Education since 1991, including serving as interim vice provost and associate vice president for faculty and academic staff affairs from 2022-23 and assistant provost for faculty and academic staff development from 2016-21.
kgraham@lsj.com
@KarlyGrahamJrn
The Detroit News contributed.
Michigan
What we know about the tornadoes that hit southeast Michigan overnight
Cleanup continued Wednesday after overnight storms spawned two EF-1 tornadoes in Southeast Michigan, toppling trees, damaging homes and businesses in Downriver communities, and leaving some neighborhoods without power for hours.
The National Weather Service confirmed one tornado tracked through the Ann Arbor area in Washtenaw County around 1:44 a.m. near Jackson Avenue and Interstate 94.
A second tornado touched down near the Allen Park and Lincoln Park border in Wayne County around 2:14 a.m.
In Garden City, strong winds snapped a large tree and brought down power lines, briefly sparking a small grass fire, resident Susan Steffke said.
“I got an alert to take cover, and I got up and split second, it was raining and thundering and lightning,” Steffke said.
Steffke said the fallen tree blocked a side street, and wires hung into her backyard.
“The tree totally was across the side street, and I had wires in my backyard, hanging down, and the telephone pole got split in half, and the top half was laying on the sidewalk,” Steffke said.
Neighbors nearby were without power for hours after the storm, said Garden City resident Julie Feinthel, who said electricity went out around 3 a.m. and returned just before 4:30 p.m.
“DTE was working around the clock to get it back up,” Feinthel said.
In Downriver, the Wayne County tornado crossed Dix Highway into Melvindale, the weather service said, snapping trees and causing damage that included roofs, windows, and HVAC equipment.
The storms also brought heavy rain and flooding, submerging flood-prone stretches of Gibraltar in southern Wayne County.
Bayview Drive in Gibraltar was closed as crews set up an additional pump to help drain standing water, officials said.
“Not much you can do, hopefully they pump it out or what have you, but it’s the first time the street’s been blocked,” said Gibraltar resident Gary Gagne.
No deaths or injuries were reported in connection with either tornado, according to the National Weather Service.
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Michigan
Thunderstorms rip across Michigan damaging 2 ice arenas, other structures
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Powerful storms ripped through parts of Michigan overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, damaging two ice arenas and other structures, and uprooting trees near the University of Michigan’s main campus.
National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in places including Ann Arbor to determine if one or more tornadoes touched down, but none had been confirmed as of Wednesday morning. Instead, the damage appears to have been caused by a line of thunderstorms that moved into Michigan from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, meteorologist Sara Schultz said.
A 70 mph (112.6 kph) wind gust was reported at 1:49 a.m. Wednesday at the university’s football stadium, while gusts of 69 mph (111 kph) and 62 mph (99.7 kph) were reported at Willow Run Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Schultz said, and another round of strong storms with potentially damaging winds was moving into the area Wednesday from states to the West.
Streets and neighborhoods in many southeastern Michigan communities also were left flooded Wednesday.
Some public school buildings in Ann Arbor suffered structural damage and many lost power. “Safe passage for walkers and buses is compromised across much of the city due to downed power lines, flooding, water main breaks, gas leaks, and felled trees and debris,” the district said Wednesday on its Facebook page.
District schools and offices were closed Wednesday due to what officials say is a fiber outage impacting fire, phone and camera systems, and building access. It wasn’t immediately clear if the fiber outage is related to the storm.
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were assessing damage to a wall at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena. Part of the roof was torn from the university’s Yost Ice Arena.
A wall, torn off of the Veterans Memorial Ice Rink following a severe storm, is seen Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Credit: AP/Mike Householder
Two blocks from where utility workers were dealing with the twisted pieces of metal littering the ground outside Yost, Seungjun Lee was feeling fortunate. A hulking tree outside the rented home he shares with six others barely missed his upstairs bedroom when the storm uprooted it.
“If the tree fell down a couple more feet, I would not be standing here,” said Lee, a 20-year-old junior at U-M. “I’d be in the hospital. So, I’m feeling very lucky that … the roof stopped it.”
Lee and his roommates were awakened by a siren, then an alert blasted from their phones between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., urging them to take shelter.
“As soon as I came out, everyone else was coming out of their rooms and everyone’s like, ‘What’s going on? This is crazy,’” said Lee, of Ridgewood, New Jersey. “And then we looked out the window: This tree just fell down. So, we’re like, ‘Oh, crap.’”
Storm damage is seen at the Argus Building in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wednesday, April 15. 2026. Credit: AP/Jordyn Pair
A friend across the street then walked over to check in.
“He was like, ‘Did you hear about Yost?’ We went, ‘No.’ We were worried about our house. So, we walked over and we checked it out and we were like, ‘That’s crazy,’” said Sam Zaruba, a 20-year-old junior from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
As for classes on Wednesday, Zaruba said he’s not going. But roommate Gautam Nigam, a 21-year-old junior, also from Grand Rapids, has to.
“I have a final presentation later today,” he said.
The storms dumped as much as 2.5 inches (6.3 cms) of rain across parts of southeastern Michigan, bringing flood watches to a big chunk of the eastern Lower Peninsula, southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio.
An evacuation notice was issued late Tuesday to low areas in northeastern Michigan’s Cheboygan County following a levee breach in the Little Black River watershed. The breach, in an area northwest of Cheboygan and west of Lake Huron, is not related to efforts to force flow from the Cheboygan Dam toward the lake as water continues rising following days of rainfall and winter snow melt, the county’s emergency management office said on its Facebook page.
Michigan
Over 40,000 without power after storms push through West Michigan
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Over 40,000 Consumers Energy customers are currently without power after strong storms pushed through West Michigan on Tuesday.
The outages, according to a map provided by Consumers Energy, are peppered from as far east as the Lake Michigan shoreline and over to Gratiot County.
This comes as storms producing strong winds, along with severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings, push through the area.
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News Channel 3 is tracking these storms and will provide updates.
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