By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
Pontiac and the surrounding area is still reeling from Wednesday night’s tornado that caused considerable damage to the parts of town.
Pontiac Fire Chief Scott Runyon described some of the damage.
“There’s quite a bit of debris – mainly buildings, roofs and just all kinds of different debris blowing around out there. Most of it is not in the street but be very cognizant of what you’re driving into. There are a lot of trees that have been knocked down, uprooted, limbs broken off. Just be very, very careful. If you can avoid the areas, please do so until we get it cleaned up, and just stay safe. Also, keep the people that are working out there safe.”
Livingston County Sheriff Tony Childress said, after observing destruction in rural Livingston County from north of Graymont all the way in to Pontiac, he considers us lucky.
“We are very thankful that we didn’t have any fatalities. To my knowledge, we have four injuries. There may be one or two more that I’m not aware of. To my knowledge, only a couple of those were serious in nature. I don’t have any idea of any fatalities, I have not been advised of that.”
At the same time, The City of Pontiac is warning residents to be wary of those who are waiting to take advantage of people who are looking to repair their storm damaged homes. Dave Lopeman with the City of Pontiac has more.
“Due to the reported storms, there’s been lots of reported damage and we have observed out of town contractors driving the streets. We want residents of the city to be aware that any contractor, any job for hire in town, the contractor must be registered with the City of Pontiac. What that registration does is it ensures the customer that they have liability insurance and a bond with the City of Pontiac. On top of that, most repairs of any nature would require a permit from this office. So we just want to be sure that the public is aware of this.”
Businesses and organizations quickly put themselves to task to help the victims and first responders of the storm. The Pontiac Elks offered free chicken dinners to all first responders most of yesterday, while Pontiac County Market is collecting food for the victims, as well as cash donations and clothes for the family who lost their home in Sterling Estates.
“We are also doing a donation for the family that was in the trailer, and they were injured in that tornado hitting their trailer. There are two children, one child that’s two years old and one that’s six years old. The mother’s in the hospital right now. They lost pretty much everything so we are taking cash donations at the service desk, we will also take clothes donations if they’d like to there. In the newspaper there will be a listing of the sizes of the children. We will be glad to take clothes, as well as cash, and any non-perishable food items. We just really want to extend a hand out to that family that had the damage and to the other families that are in town that took quite a hit in terms of the belongings at home.”
