UNION CITY, MI — The Union Lake community was devastated by a tornado on March 6. Downtown Union City, about 40 miles southeast of Kalamazoo, also saw extensive damage. The National Weather Service gave the tornado an EF3 rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale with wind speeds of 150 mph.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency for three Michigan counties after the National Weather Service said at least three tornadoes touched down during severe storms Friday.

Tornadoes touched down in three counties in southwestern Michigan north of the Indiana border Friday, March 6.

When the worst tornado to ever strike Michigan blew up Flint in 1953, a Free Press writer described the scene as something from Dante's "Inferno." It hit on June 8, resulting in 116 deaths and 844 injuries, and still ranks among the most destructive tornadoes on record in the nation.

Students in Union City, Michigan, raised $7,500 to bring Duke the dog to the school district long before the city was struck by a deadly tornado.

Three of the four people killed in Friday's storms lived within a few hundred yards of each other in the small community of Union Lake.