UNION CITY, Mich. — As search and rescue crews concentrated on the devastated area around Union Lake following Friday's violent tornadic weather, Michiganians in nearby Union City began picking up the pieces of the damage littered throughout their homes and businesses.

On Saturday morning, the Green family was working to clear the sidewalk in front of their woodworking business and along the rest of Broadway Street, the main thoroughfare in downtown Union City. Parents Duane and Dawn swept up broken glass while children Duane IV, 9, and Calissa, 11, held dustpans.

Duane was working in the store when the twister ripped through the area.

"You could kind of hear it chugging like a train," Duane said. "I watched it come up the street. I went in (the store), went down to the basement.

"When I came out ... you could see the storm was going that way," he said, gesturing to the northeast.

Duane said the storm came suddenly on Friday afternoon. It tore the facade from a used car business just a block away from his store and knocked out several windows in downtown buildings.

Duane, who resides in nearby Athens, said he regularly volunteers with Samaritan First, a nonprofit that assists in disaster relief efforts. He was meeting with a representative from the organization later in the day to determine how best he could help.

"(On) our social media page, people are reaching out if they need anything — trees cut off or anything. We're equipped and ready," he said.

Three people were killed when the tornado ripped through Union Lake west of Union City, the Branch County Sheriff’s Office said Friday night. Twelve people were injured in the same area, the sheriff's office said. A 12-year-old boy was confirmed dead Friday after a tornado hit in the Edwardsburg area, according to the Cass County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Clint Roach said there were several injuries reported in the southern end of his county near the Indiana state line.

Lonnie Fisher, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Northern Indiana, said the area west of Union City, at Union Lake, appears to have the most extensive damage, according to reports from emergency management officials and on social media. A survey team from his office was headed to the area Saturday.

He expects that the National Weather Service will release at least a preliminary report on the survey of the Union City area on Saturday afternoon. Reports on Three Rivers and Edwardsburg could come out later Saturday.

Union City resident Alisha Carr was at work on Friday when the storm came through. Once her shift was over, she found that she "could barely get home" because the roads were blocked with fallen trees and service trucks as workers endeavored to repair downed lines. When she finally made it to her 1869-built home at the corner of John and Foote streets, she found it had been damaged by a fallen tree.

Still, she said as crews worked to cut and remove the tree from her home on Saturday morning, it could have been worse for her.

"In the backyard, you can literally see the path of the tornado," Carr said. "I mean, we just missed it by feet, literally."

Lillian Andrews, who lives just south of Carr, said "pretty much every tree in our yard is gone," as is her garage, which was lifted off the ground and leveled by the twister. She said it will take the small town months to recover from the unexpected storm.

"It's a long process, but we'll get there," she said.

Several Union City residents said they heard tornado sirens sounding numerous times before the twister arrived.

Fourteen-year-old Clayton Stage was in his room playing video games when he heard the sirens. Minutes later, he looked outside and saw the twister making its way across town.

"It was huge," he said. "It sounded like a freight train coming through."

Union City High School has been turned into a distribution center where volunteers have banded together to provide clothing, food and other essentials to community members affected by the storm.

Jamie Thomas, the principal at Union City Middle School and part of a crisis team leading the outreach effort, said hundreds of community members have donated their time or items to help those in need. The district is also letting displaced people take showers at the high school and helping them to find temporary lodging.

"It's what small towns are about, they come together," Thomas said. "We're managing, and we're making it happen."

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