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.
ROTHBURY, Mich. — Michigan State Police (MSP) detectives shared some more information Friday about their investigation of the infant death at this year’s Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury.
Troopers recently received a tip about a Muskegon woman who was said to have information about the incident, but after interviewing her and completing other necessary investigative steps, MSP said they ruled her out as a suspect.
A restroom vending company employee at the festival found the body of a neonate, a newborn infant who is four weeks old or younger, in a portable restroom in the festival camping area on June 28, according to troopers.
The festival is hosted at the Double JJ Resort, which was locked down to anyone entering the following day as police surrounded the scene.
Troopers are asking for tips from the public at michigan.gov/michtip.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Harmful algal blooms have been reported on two notable lakes in West Michigan: Gun Lake and Muskegon Lake.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy says cyanobacteria was reported on Muskegon Lake July 3, but no tests have confirmed it.
The Barry-Eaton District Health Department says a harmful algal bloom was confirmed Thursday on Gun Lake. The lake remains open, but the BEDHD is encouraging visitors to use caution and avoid water that has “visible algae.”
Visitors are encouraged to avoid any contact with water that appears bright green, blue-green, brown or red or has “floating mats of scum.”
Pets should also avoid the water. If they come into contact with the algae, pets should be rinsed off as soon as possible with clean, fresh water.
Exposure to algae can cause a rash or irritation to the skin, eyes, nose and throat. It can also cause stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever and trouble breathing.
“If you become sick, contact your healthcare provider. Seek medical care right away if you have trouble breathing, severe vomiting, or other serious symptoms,” the BEDHD said in a statement. “If your pet was exposed, rinse them well with clean water and do not let them lick their fur until they have been washed. Contact your veterinarian right away if your pet has vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, trouble walking, excessive drooling, shaking, or seizures.”
Harmful algal blooms are powered by the sudden growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria occur naturally in lakes, rivers and ponds but is often boosted by a sudden excess of nutrients, often caused by fertilizer runoff from farms or failed septic systems.
They can last for several days and sometimes even months. The water will look “scummy” or like “spilled paint or pea soup.” They are typically found in the summer and fall — usually peaking in August or September and dying off by the end of October.
You can report a suspected harmful algal bloom to EGLE at AlgaeBloom@Michigan.gov or 1.800.662.9278.
Sterling Stamping Plant is the largest in the world
Ed Daniels, vice president of North America injection and stamping operations, discusses the process of producing metal parts for Stellantis models.
Warren — Hulking metal presses line one wall of Stellantis NV’s cavernous stamping plant here, punching out the raw shapes of Jeep doors, Dodge hoods and Ram tailgates in rapid succession.
Nearby, swinging yellow robots continue the tightly choreographed work, gluing and pressing and welding smaller components to the sheet metal that eventually will start to resemble the shape of a truck or SUV.
Seven miles north, in Sterling Heights, Stellantis operates an even larger stamping plant — the biggest in the world, at 2.7 million square feet — that does much of the same work, churning out various shapes of steel and aluminum 24 hours a day.
Together, these lesser-known links in the manufacturing supply chain support all of Stellantis’ big North American assembly plants — from next-door Warren Truck Assembly Plant, where the Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV is built, to facilities in Windsor and Mexico that make minivans and pickups.
Inside Stellantis’ Huge Detroit Stamping Plants
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the automaker’s Sterling and Warren stamping plants, which are key to the company’s turnaround plan.
The Metro Detroit stamping plants, the automaker’s only two such facilities in the United States, have at times struggled in recent years, facing major job cuts and worker morale issues amid slowing sales and shifting production plans. But under Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, the facilities are expected to cram in more workload — and add staff — as Stellantis begins a new five-year strategic turnaround plan, which includes a heavy focus on its most profitable North American market.
The carmaker’s goal: grow sales by more than a third to 1.9 million annually by 2030 as it launches 23 vehicles, including 11 all-new models. The company also is directing billions of dollars of investment into its U.S. manufacturing footprint due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“Stamping has never really been viewed as the sexy side of automotive manufacturing, we’re relatively invisible,” said Ed Daniels Jr., vice president of North America injection and stamping operations. “Because when you look at the commercials and advertisements, it’s always a beautiful Ram rolling off the assembly line or climbing the side of a mountain.
“But we’re the inception of that vehicle,” he said. “This is where raw materials are turned into commodities and parts.”
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the two plants that combined employ about 3,000 people. The automaker wanted to show off a newly-installed blanking press at Warren Stamping and other machinery like a high-speed transfer press and a robot that spots flaws in the metal.
Hiring expected
The blanking press unspools long coils of metal and chops them up into pieces that can then be shaped into roofs, fenders and floor pans. Stellantis shipped the massive machine to Warren from its idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois last year.
After upgrades to the machine, executives said it’s able to produce as many as 120,000 metal blanks per week. It will save Stellantis money since the plant will no longer need to pay a supplier to break down the coils before the metal arrives there.
The blanker addition is a big deal for the plant and signals that the company wants to bring more work in-house and invest in the facility over the coming years, said Romaine McKinney III, president of United Auto Workers Local 869, which represents workers at the factory.
The plant has already brought back all of its laid-off UAW workers, and McKinney said he anticipates more hiring to get underway if sales grow and new Stellantis vehicles come to market.
In another corner of the Warren facility, one of the fastest press lines in the world — known internally as the Hellcat — pushes as many as 15 pieces of metal through per minute. Dies that weigh up to 50 tons apiece squish the material into the shapes of doors and hoods before robotic arms snatch them out and place them on conveyor belts. Midway through a shift, workers can reconfigure the machine to make a different component, a process that takes just five minutes.
Robots check for quality
Curtis Booth, who manages Warren Stamping, said manual processes inside the plant have become increasingly automated, and safer, over the last couple decades, even as the automaker’s two stamping factories still utilize some presses that were installed in the 1960s.
The latest high-tech addition is the Automated Body Inspection System, or ABIS. It’s a camera system mounted on a robot that automatically checks the quality of components and flags anything in need of repair.
Auto plants of all kinds are increasingly turning to these types of camera systems, infused with artificial intelligence, to catch flaws in sheet metal and other components before they are shipped. Booth said worker visual inspections are still used. But in some cases the human eye has too much subjectivity, and the ABIS removes the guesswork.
Greg Bauer, who manages Sterling Stamping, said his plant has added staff over the past year, and expects to continue hiring as more work is assigned to the facility. There is no space at the plant to add more presses, but officials have figured out how to increase efficiency — quickly toggling back and forth between making doors for a Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Charger on on a single machine, for example.
“We want to bring high-volume parts into the plant, and we want to maximize the capacity of the equipment,” Daniels said.
lramseth@detroitnews.com
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