Detroiters in eastside neighborhoods hit hardest by Thursday’s storm spent Friday, Sept. 4, dealing with power outages, damaged trees and debris everywhere.
Several businesses along Beaufait Street near Charlevoix had their steel walls and roofs torn open like tuna cans. Sheets of steel siding were flung into the streets and trees and wrapped around powerlines. Bricks and branches litered the lawns and sidewalks for blocks around.
At nearby Mount Elliott Cemetery, huge limbs and some whole trees had fallen, covering graves and blocking roads. A steady downpour through the morning left the area oddly quiet except for the rumble of passing utility trucks.
“It was almost like a calm before the storm and then you could literally hear it come over the building,”
said Andrew Davis, 41, of Grosse Pointe Park, who was at work at SMPLFD Printing and Clothing Co. on Beaufait Street, when the storm hit. “I described it almost like a jet engine sound.”
Davis said he and others quickly pulled down rolling metal doors that cover windows on the side of the building for fear they would blow in. He said he heard a loud boom.
“I thought like something happened, like something hit our building,” Davis said. Later outside he saw pieces of metal sheeting and other debris from a neighboring building had flown onto the one he works in.
Church spared
A block away at the New Liberty Baptist Church, two deacons, James Foster and Leslie Smith, were working to get a generater started so they could power the sump pumps in the building.
Foster said the church sanctuary was spared most of the damage, though the roof is leaking a bit. The church parking lot across the street wasn't so fortunate.
"Half our garage is gone," Foster said. "The guard shack is knocked down."
The winds toppled the guard shack and knocked down a brick wall beside the garage, scattering bricks into the alley.
Foster said the church has been told it should have power restored by Saturday and he hopes it will be able to hold its scheduled services Sunday. Foster said that he's old enough to remember the tornado that ripped through the neighborhood years ago. He said that one was worse.
"This here kind of hit this small area," he said of Thursday's storm. "The one back then hit everything that was in its way. I mean, it did a lot of damage.
Defibrillator battery
Ray Brown, 70, is a jazz musician who lives on Parker Street near Kercheval.
The power outage creates a risk for him because of a heart condition.
"There's no power and he's wearing a defibrillator," his wife, Diane Brown, said. "He's on his his last battery since the storm."
The couple ventured out of their home Friday afternoon as the rain began to let up. Brown carried the unit in a black backpack.
"We're trying to find a place to charge or if we can see an emergency vehicle, we'll ask him where we can go to charge," she said.
Save the pies
Fridays are supposed to be pay day for Lisa Ludwinski, owner of Sister Pie, a bake shop in Detroit's West Village neighborhood.
After working all week prepping and baking her signature pies, she sells them on Friday to provide the bulk of her business revenue. Thursday’s storm cut her power, disrupted production and sent her scrambling to salvage as many of the finished treats and fresh ingredients as she could.
“We were able to sell a few things today, but we only made a third of our sales.” she said Friday afternoon as she loaded containers of baking materials into the back of her Volkswagen Golf. "The biggest challenge that we're gonna face is how do we recoup these? It's one of the nightmares of being a business owner."
Ludwinski said she could file an insurance claim but it may not arrive in time to make a difference. When the power initially went out, she brought in dry ice to keep things chilled.
"DTE told us the power would be back on today," she said. "But other people say it won't be on until Sunday."
Ludwinski said she had to make other plans for her products and supplies.
"There's a food business near Hamtramck and they said that I can use their fridge," she said of Adelaide's Superette, who made the offer. "The like a little shop and I'm taking it over there."
Contact John Wisely: jwisely@freepress.com. On X: @jwisely.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Storm clean up marked by delays and debris
