Residential impact
Portage was hit hard by last week’s tornado with 305 residential buildings affected. Within that total, 23 were destroyed and 67 took major damage.
Pavilion Township had the highest number of destroyed homes. Forty-five residential buildings were destroyed out of 106 that suffered varying degrees of damage during the storm.
In Texas Township, six residences were destroyed out of a total of 95 damaged homes.
Business relief
After doing its own assessment, the Small Business Administration will set up an office in Portage where tornado impacted businesses may apply for low interest SBA loans to help them rebuild. It is unknown when exactly the office will open.
Now that the completed damage report is in, it is up to Governor Gretchen Whitmer to ask President Joe Biden to approve a federal disaster declaration.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
