BY LARRY SOBCZAK
EDITOR
This month marks the 90th anniversary of one of the most destructive and well-remembered severe thunderstorms to blow through the area in the 20th Century.
Severe thunderstorms hit northern Macomb and Oakland counties during the mid-afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 2, 1934 just as the thermometer topped out at 90 degrees according to the National Weather Service.
This storm is best known for bending the spire on the Romeo Methodist Church eastward, necessitating its permanent removal in the following weeks.
Many locals recall it as the “Romeo Tornado” but Paul Gross, a former longtime meteorologist on WDIV-TV Channel 4, questions that characterization because of the widespread high wind damage the storm brought throughout the region.
Gross reviewed accounts of the severe thunderstorm that were published in five different newspapers over two editions as well as photographs taken of storm damage.
“Is it technically possible that there was a tornado embedded within the overall massive storm complex? Yes, that’s possible. But all of the newspaper descriptions suggest a straight-line event, probably with 100 mph or so wind,” he said.
Since signing-off from Channel 4 last year after four decades, Gross now works as a certified consulting meteorologist for law firms.
On the morning of Aug. 2, 1934, a line of thunderstorms entered the state of Michigan in the Shelby area, which is between Ludington and Grand Haven, according to The Detroit Free Press.
Before exiting the state over Lake St. Clair, the storm caused $3.25 million in damage, $73.5 million in 2023 dollars, and 12 people lost their lives according to newspaper reports.
Extreme widespread wind damage was reported in an area bound by Flint, Pontiac, Detroit and Port Huron according to multiple newspaper accounts.
He also noticed that the only reference to a tornado was in a headline in The Romeo Observer.
Gross noted that the description as the storms entered the area, in particular, this passage “Winds of a most dangerous velocity slashed the sheets of rain with cutting force into the trees, crops and open windows.”
He said it was the first clue about the nature of the storm.
“If this was a tornado, then they would have used “tornado’ or `swirling wind’ or similar verbiage. As I mentioned previously, there has been only a single reference to a tornado,” he said. “There were too many people who would have seen and talked about a tornado to not have this mentioned if it was indeed a tornado.”
Newspaper reports indicated the thunderstorm intensified as it entered Oakland and Genesee counties.
The weather station in Pontiac recorded a 92-mph gust and Selfridge Field near Mount Clemens recorded a 105-mph gust which is the same force as a strong EF-1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale.
Corn fields were flattened and apple crops were destroyed at an estimated cost of $100,000 or $2.3 million in 2023 dollars. Orchards and crops were reported as ruined between Lake Orion, Oxford and Romeo as well as orchards outside of Mount Clemens according to reports.
Between 8,000 and 9,000 power poles were knocked over according to Detroit Edison. Thousands were without power or telephone service.
There was a reference that the storm lasted something like 45 minutes. A tornado doesn’t last that long – another clue that it wasn’t a tornado,” Gross said.
The storm seemed to have an appetite for area churches.
Besides bending the spire at the Romeo Methodist Church on North Main Street in Romeo, it had also removed a significant amount of the roof of the same church according to The Romeo Observer.
Damages were estimated at $5,000 or more than $117,000 in 2024 dollars.
The Observer also reported that a section of slate shingles was removed from Romeo Congregational Church across the street from the Methodist church.
On South Main Street in Romeo, the roof of Immanuel Baptist Church (present-day TNT Martial Arts) landed on the parsonage next door (present-day Romeo Chiropractic) according to The Observer.
In Davis, an unincorporated town at the intersection of 27 Mile and Romeo Plank roads in Ray Township, The Observer reported The Davis Methodist Church was damaged.
The Oxford Leader reported that the steeple and the whole front face of Oxford Methodist Church was swept away and a significant amount of the roof was removed.
In Mount Clemens, bricks were thrown from the cupola at the Presbyterian Church according to The Mount Clemens Monitor.
The rural one-room schoolhouse located at the corner of Snell Road and Mount Vernon roads in western Washington Township was destroyed.
Businesses in multiple communities were damaged.
The Observer reported that plate glass was wrecked in the display windows of the following businesses:
Wilbur’s furniture store (Romeo Village Hall is there now)
Dunn and Son’s meat market (Pit Stop gas station is there now)
Kroger’s grocery
Starkweather Millinery (Starkweather Arts Center is there now)
Fred Smith Drug Store
Ellsworth’s Dry Good Store (Main’s Treat Coffeehouse original location is there now)
Ford Garage or Ford Sales (HoneyPie Kids Children’s Clothing Boutique is there now)
Bowling Alley run by August Saul Jr.
The Monitor reported that Alward’s Grocery Store in downtown Washington (West Road and Van Dyke Avenue) had smashed windows and damage to the building.
The Free Press reported that the Mount Vernon Country Club which was located near the intersection of Mound and West roads in Washington Township sustained damage during the storm.
A 150-foot ski jump that was located near Avon and John R roads in Avon Township was destroyed by the storm according to multiple reports. The ski jump was located in present-day Bloomer Park in present-day Rochester Hills.
The Mount Clemens Sugar Factory sustained $3,500 in damage or about $81,000 in 2023 dollars and the roof of the Engleman Broom Manufacturing Company in Mount Clemens was blown off, according to The Monitor.
The Lake Orion Review said the grocery store on South Broadway was completely covered in trees and the fire department was unable to answer calls.
There were reports of thousands of trees damaged by the storm.
Trees were reported down in Romeo, Washington, Lake Orion, Oxford, Oakland Township, New Baltimore and Mount Clemens and leaving behind damaged homes and businesses as well as impassible streets.
The Leader reported 200 trees were damaged at Stony Lake Park just north of town and campers had their tents blown away.
All of the century-old maple trees along Washington Street in New Baltimore, the main thoroughfare in town to Lake St. Clair, were knocked down according to The Free Press.
There were widespread accounts of homes that sustained roof and siding damage throughout Macomb and Oakland counties, the worse damage appears to have occurred to cottages in the Lake Orion area.
Homeowners throughout the area told the newspapers that several garages and sheds were moved, damaged or destroyed in multiple communities.
In terms of property damage, barns were walloped the worst.
County farm agents, insurance adjusters and reporters surveyed the affected area and found:
35 barns and three silos were destroyed in Washington Township. At least another dozen barns sustained damage.
Nine barns and seven silos were damaged in Ray Township.
Eight barns and one windmill were damaged in Bruce Township.
At least 15 barns between Oxford and Romeo were destroyed including a sheep barn at the Middleton farm in Oakland Township where 15 sheep died when it collapsed on them.
Other notable barns destroyed by the storm include the large barn at the American Aggregate Company in Oxford and the largest barn in eastern Michigan in Oakwood, M-24 near the Lapeer County line.
Gross poured over the photos that accompanied the articles sent to him from the Romeo Community Archive, located in the Kezar Library in Romeo.
“Those photos show trees and utility poles all blown down in the same direction. That’s strongly suggestive of a straight-line wind,” he said.
The technology of the 1930s placed limits on Gross’s conclusion.
“What happened in Romeo on Aug. 8, 1934 was most likely a high-end straight-line wind event with winds that could have approached 100 miles per hour — that’s as strong as a tornado,” Gross said. “Although there is no evidence that the storm was a tornado, it’s possible in storms like this that a brief tornado can spin up, and I cannot say with 100 percent certainty that this wasn’t a tornado. However, all evidence from the extensive newspaper reports point toward tornado-strength straight-line winds hitting Romeo that day, causing widespread and severe damage.”
