City inspectors have tallied 101 tornado-damaged properties across Detroit's east side, including 55 businesses, 24 single-family homes, 21 multifamily residences and one manufactured home, following the EF-2 tornado that tore through the city the afternoon of September 3. More than a week later, cleanup crews are still working through the wreckage, and officials warn some damaged businesses may require emergency demolition.
The damage assessment, released by Mayor Mary Sheffield's office and reported by The Detroit News, found major damage at 25 properties, including 20 businesses and five single-family homes. Another 30 properties were classified as merely affected, split between 14 single-family homes and 16 businesses, while 15 properties sustained only minor damage. The tornado hit the city around 4 p.m. on September 3, according to the same report, and marked Detroit's first confirmed tornado in nearly three decades.
Sheffield confirmed during a press conference that only one person was injured in the storm — a father who was hurt while shielding his infant child when a tree fell on their home, according to BridgeDetroit. Despite the widespread property destruction across densely populated residential neighborhoods struck during late afternoon hours, casualties remained remarkably limited.
Tracking the Twister's Path
The National Weather Service classified the storm as an EF-2 tornado that reached wind speeds of 115 mph and tore a path 3.5 miles long, per the Detroit News report. Survey teams later determined the tornado touched down approximately two miles northeast of Comerica Park and expanded to a maximum width of half a mile, according to CBS News. The twister lasted just four minutes but caused significant tree damage on Belle Isle, with the worst-hit neighborhoods including McDougall-Hunt, Islandview, West Village, Indian Village, East Village and Pingree Park.
Two minutes before the Detroit tornado touched down, a brief EF-0 tornado struck around Memorial Park in Lincoln Park, in Wayne County, at 4:12 p.m. that same day, the National Weather Service reported. The Detroit tornado itself was embedded within three distinct rounds of severe weather that swept Southeast Michigan from September 2 to September 3, dumping 2 to 4 inches of rain and generating straight-line winds of 60 to 70 mph, the agency said.
Under the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF-2 tornadoes carry estimated wind speeds ranging from 111 to 135 mph, placing Detroit's storm near the lower boundary of that classification, according to Carrier Management. Investigators with Canada's Northern Tornadoes Project later determined that a separate EF-1 tornado with winds up to 165 km/h, or 102 mph, struck east Windsor, Ontario, describing it as an apparent continuation of the same storm system across the Detroit River and Belle Isle, per the Windsor Star.
Emergency Order and Cleanup Progress
Sheffield signed an executive order on September 4 declaring a local state of emergency, giving her broader authority to direct local resources toward cleanup and opening the door for Detroit to begin talks with state and federal governments about recovery resources. The city's General Services Department and Department of Public Works have since cleared 83 streets, removed 295 fallen trees, cleared 520 piles of tree debris and hauled away 342 tons of debris, per the Detroit News report.
More than 350,000 DTE customers across the region lost power during the storm, and the tornado knocked out 100 traffic signals in Detroit, which have since been restored to working order. The city is advising residents to report any unaddressed downed trees or damaged buildings through the Improve Detroit app or by calling 313-590-3336, while the Detroit Housing Resource Helpline offers housing or emergency shelter assistance at (866) 313-2520.
Wayne County SNAP recipients who experienced food spoilage due to storm-related power outages or property damage are also eligible to apply for replacement food benefits, according to CBS News.
A Storm Nearly 30 Years in the Making
The last tornado to strike Detroit occurred on July 2, 1997, an F2 storm that touched down on the city's west side and passed through Highland Park and Hamtramck, injuring nearly 100 people and causing close to $100 million in damage across northern Wayne County, according to WDIV ClickOnDetroit. Detroit suffered no direct tornado fatalities in that 1997 storm, though severe thunderstorm winds tied to the same weather system killed five people in Wayne County, alongside two tornado deaths in neighboring Oakland and Genesee counties, CBS News reported separately.
The September 3 tornado was confirmed as Michigan's 28th tornado of 2026, following a 27th tornado confirmed in St. Clair County the previous evening, CBS News reported. Michigan recorded 33 tornadoes in 2025 and typically averages around 13 tornadoes a year based on three-decade historical data, underscoring how active this year's severe weather season has been. The storm outbreak also produced a fatal crash on I-96, which Hoodline covered in its report on a fatal wood chipper collision tied to the same storm system.
