Spring Valley Trout Farm owner: 'Amazing' storm near Dexter chops off tops of 100-foot pine trees
Jean Kaercher, owner of Spring Valley Trout Farm near Dexter, said the wind and rain were powerful and quick-moving this evening, causing significant damage to the foliage at her family's farm.
Kaercher said her 10-year-old son thought he saw a funnel cloud swirling, but she isn’t sure. She couldn't see much of anything through the rain, she said.
An aerial view of the Spring Valley Trout Farm. The farm suffered significant tree damage in tonight's Dexter Township storm.
From springvalleytroutfarm.com
Kaercher said she and her husband, Jim, rushed them inside when the thunder and lightning began.
“By the time we reached the porch, the sprinkling turned into pouring down rain and then the wind came and you couldn’t see anything. It was just a solid sheet,” she said.
The wind flipped the Kaerchers' grill and uprooted or chopped in half about 20 trees. She said one of the trees brought down a wire and started smoking.
“A light pole in the (trout) pond was damaged and trees landed next to the cars … the wind just took off the entire tops of these 100-foot pine trees, probably five or six of them. The bottoms of them are just still standing there,” Kaercher said. “It was just amazing.”
She said thankfully the farm had just bid farewell to a bus full of children with disabilities from Canton who had been there fishing during a field trip.
In addition to a dozen or so pine trees, the Kaerchers also lost a couple of maple trees and a large poplar, mainly on the east side of their 20 acres.
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Staff reporter Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
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