State, federal relief agencies arrive in Gaylord to survey tornado damage

Gaylord — A team of about a dozen people from federal, state and local agencies wound their way through the Nottingham Forest mobile home park on Wednesday morning, knocking on doors and surveying rubble-filled lots.

As the workers made their way from lot to lot, documenting damage they saw using clipboards, iPads and iPhones to take notes, they mostly encountered destroyed or empty homes, but occasionally arrived at a residence where someone was home.

“You live here? We’re just going around with FEMA and SBA,” a state police officer with the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department said to one homeowner on the back edge of the park.

Wednesday marked the first day of the preliminary damage assessment process, where officials are seeking to take stock of the extent of the damage caused by the EF3 tornado that tore through the community Friday, demolishing homes, leaving two people dead and injuring dozens of others.

With wind speeds between 136 and 165 miles per hour, the twister ripped through the mobile home park along M-32 — one mile west of Interstate 75 — before hitting Gaylord's commercial corridor and then taking out more neighborhoods east of I-75.

The emergency management group in Nottingham Forest was one of three teams on the ground in Gaylord this week to survey the damage. Each team is made up of staff from the Michigan State Police, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency on Friday after the storm hit. While the state has not yet requested federal assistance, the decision to have FEMA participate in the preliminary assessment was made in order to help expedite the process.

Dale George, a spokesman for the state police emergency management division, said they wanted to bring FEMA in early to make sure the state is following the same damage assessment protocols so that the agency doesn’t have to come back and redo the work or retrace the same steps in the event that federal assistance is requested.

“We're just collecting that information to get a picture of, you know, the extent of the damage to the community as a whole,” said George, who was at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. “And then we will work with FEMA to determine whether there should be any further assistance here.”

The response from FEMA is relatively rapid, according to the agency’s staff in Gaylord. Often times a state will do its own assessment independently, but the decision was made to get involved earlier due to the abruptness of the storm.

“That's why we're here so quickly after the storm, to make sure that we understand the impacts as quickly as possible,” FEMA spokesman Mark Peterson said. “We know people want to move on, they want to recover, and so we want to make those decisions as quickly.”

Michigan will have 30 days from the day the storm hit to determine whether it will request federal assistance.

Michael James "MJ" Labouef was standing in his yard after speaking with the assessment team. Much like several Nottingham Forest residents The Detroit News spoke to, Labouef does not have homeowners insurance, so he’ll be reliant on whatever assistance he can get from state and federal agencies.

The 39-year-old was relatively fortunate compared to his neighbors — there was some external damage to his home but it’s still livable. The officials took down notes about awning and roof damage to Labouef's mobile home that could be eligible. 

At the same time, Labouef said he feels guilty taking money for a few thousand dollars worth of damage when some of his friends and neighbors saw their homes destroyed or are in the hospital with severe injuries. 

“It's just hard to see that they want to help me and they're really leaving those people out to fend for themselves,” he said through tears. “Now I appreciate the help, but other people need it more and it makes me feel bad to even take any help.” 

“You could give my buddy that almost died that 15 or 20 grand to get somewhere safe.”

His main concern at the moment is about the nearly 80-unit mobile home park as a whole, and whether residents will be allowed to continue living there. Power at Nottingham Forest was turned back on Wednesday, but residents were still without gas and water with no timeline as to when those utilities might be restored.

Labouef, who has lived in Gaylord for most of his life, is unemployed and said he doesn’t have anywhere else he can stay.

He owns his home outright, purchasing it through the rent-to-own type mechanism that’s typical of mobile home residents, but the unit is too old to move.

If the mobile home park gets condemned, Labouef said he’d be in a serious bind trying to find housing in the northern Michigan town of 3,600 residents.

“I’d be…” he said, before stopping to mouth a four-letter word. “One hundred percent. I've lived here for 10 years ... that terrifies me."

kruble@detroitnews.com