Governor Whitmer toured part of Pavilion Estates, meeting with residents, volunteers and first responders. Alongside her was Michigan State Senator Sean McCann and Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller.
Witnessing the devastation firsthand, Whitmer said that while there were no fatalities, that doesn’t mean the community was at all unscathed.
“While we feel really lucky that no people lost their lives. We know that a lot of people lost everything.”
She added that with climate change making these disasters more common, the state needs to make more of an effort to push back against these negative effects.
“We've got to continue to evolve as well as we think about how do we protect one another and how do we combat these impacts of climate change.”
Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller says in total, 176 homes were damaged, with at least 15 being totally destroyed.
Whitmer says state departments from the State Police to the Department of Transportation are on the ground to assist local communities recovering from the disaster.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
