Powerful storms that whipped up tornadoes killed four people in southern Michigan, including a 12-year-old boy, and two people in eastern Oklahoma on Friday, reducing homes to rubble and leaving a swath of damage.In Michigan, a 12-year-old boy died after succumbing to weather-related injuries. The boy’s parents called 911 to report that they could not find their son as a tornado touched down in the area, and by the time first responders arrived, the parents were providing him with first aid.Three people were killed and 12 were injured in the Union Lake area near Union City, Michigan, after an apparent tornado hit, according to the Branch County Sheriff’s Office. About 50 miles southwest, Cass County officials reported one death and several injuries after a tornado touched down.Tornado sirens blared as Tyler Cramer pulled into work at Menards, a home improvement store in Three Rivers, Michigan. The clouds dropped, the wind picked up, and Cramer said he and his fellow employees took off for the store’s shelter area.“As we’re running is right when it hits, the skylights start blowing out. You can watch all the doors come off the building,” Cramer told Jattvibe News. “You can look down the aisle ways, and we just watched the garden center on the far side of the store basically just disappear.”From the shelter area, Cramer, other employees and customers watched whole sections of the store collapse. Cramer said that the tornado’s entire wave of destruction felt like it lasted only 30 seconds. “It hit so quickly and was gone,” he said.The tornado took down powerlines in Three Rivers, sent large pieces debris flying into trees, and totaled vehicles.In Oklahoma, just south of Tulsa, a tornado in Beggs was blamed for the deaths of two people in a house, the Okmulgee County Sheriff’s Office said.The storms hit a broad section of the nation’s midsection, spurring tornado warnings and watches from Oklahoma to Iowa to Michigan. Fifteen preliminary tornadoes were reported Friday across Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.Tornado sirens blared as Tyler Cramer pulled into work at Menards, a home improvement store in Three Rivers, Mich.Courtesy Tyler Cramer At least one tornado has been confirmed in southern Michigan, near Union City, on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, and there were reports of possible others.Officials in Branch County, Michigan, said at a press conference they hope to complete ongoing recovery operations tonight. Tim Miner, Branch County Emergency Management Coordinator, said that the county launched multiple recovery assets, including drones and cadaver search.The combination of a weather system that pulled moisture out of the Gulf and a warm front that moved north created the right conditions for a tornado in a state where they’re relatively rare, according to David Roth, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. The system encountered much cooler air in the Great Lakes area.Michigan gets an average of 15 tornadoes a year, which is much less than the 155 for Texas and 96 for Kansas, he said.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer posted on X that will declare a state of emergency for Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties following the severe weather and said the state is coordinating resources for those affected.Whitmer activated the state’s Emergency Operations Center Friday “to coordinate an all-hands-on-deck response to severe weather,” she said in a statement.Severe weather stretches far beyond MichiganA tornado cut around a 4-mile path of damage in Okmulgee County including Beggs, some 30 miles south of Tulsa, said Jeff Moore, the county’s emergency manager. Large trees were toppled and power outages were reported. Two people were killed and two others were taken to a hospital, officials said.“We’re just getting everywhere as fast as we can, clearing roads as fast we can,” Moore said.A damaged home on the north side of Union Lake, Mich., after the tornado on March 6.Don Reid / USA Today NetworkJames Hall, a homeowner in Oklahoma said he was on his porch watching the storm roll in when he realized he had no other choice but to evacuate.Hall said he couldn’t hear any sirens and simply watched the tornado as it approached before grabbing his kids and leaving their home behind. In the storm’s aftermath, a mountain of debris surrounded what remained of his home, including a car compressed underneath the torn-off roof of a house.While standing in his driveway after a tornado, John Baucom of Beggs, Oklahoma, saw that he had some of the most significant damage in his area, particularly to what used to be his shed. “Now my shop, it’s up in trees. It’s down the street, it’s all over the place,” Baucom said.Baucom was at a local shelter with his two dogs when the storm hit his property, including an RV that was flipped over and spun around by the tornado.Damage from suspected tornadoes also was reported in northern parts of Tulsa.In an eerie scene captured on video Thursday, a first responder drove straight at a storm near the western Oklahoma town of Fairview, where flashes of lightning illuminated a giant funnel that appeared to reach the ground. That storm, among the first outbreaks of severe weather on the verge of the spring storm season, was filmed by a camera mounted on the deputy’s car.Nearby, a 47-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter from Fairview were found dead in a vehicle near the intersection of a highway and a county road at about 10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.“I am praying for the family as they grieve this tragic loss, as well as all those impacted by the storms,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement Friday.On Saturday morning, Stitt declared a state of emergency for eight counties due to severe weather, tornadoes and flooding.Kevin Turner said he lives just across the road from where the mother and daughter were found. Turner took shelter with his family in their cellar after seeing flashes of light from lost power and lightning and a blue-green tint to the sky that Turner said he realized was the tornado.After about five minutes, they emerged to see the damage. “I’ve got some downed barns, and as you can see, a lot of debris across there, and I may be missing a couple cows,” Turner said.Communities in Oklahoma have come together to support cleanup efforts and help neighbors whose homes were decimated.Daren Dean, in Bristow, Oklahoma, was helping his daughter clean up her home when he realized the damage down the road at her neighbor’s home was much more severe. Dean’s daughter was “fortunate,” he said, but others “pretty much lost everything.”One neighbor’s insulation had become entangled in the trees. “I think his whole house is scattered throughout the pasture and made it across into the trees,” Dean told Jattvibe News. Dean said that the community has a big task ahead of it to clean up the neighborhood and rebuild.Severe storm risk continues into the weekendThe National Weather Service said strong storms and flash flood risks on Saturday stretched from the Great Lakes to Texas. A tornado watch was issued for a large portion of Arkansas and parts of Texas and Louisiana.Fairview, Okla., on Thursday.Danny GiagerThe spring storms come near the start of what many call tornado season, which begins at various times in different parts of the U.S. Experts recommend a few simple safety steps to take before tornadoes hit, including having a weather radio and a plan for where to take shelter.The weather began to ease Friday in some areas of the Northeast, but Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut remained under weather advisories.In parts of the southern U.S., the weather pattern is also expected to usher in extremely warm temperatures for this time of year by the weekend.“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, with 80s reaching as far north as parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily records could become widespread.”