Area Staggered By Squall

i' Ann Arbor área residents toI d ly were pumping out baseI 'nts, sïioveling away mud and I cutting up downed trees and . linibs in the wake of a brief but I i' u r i o u s line squall which I slashed a swath of destruction I through the city and vicinity I yesterday afternoon. Scores of power and teleI phone lines were blown into I streets, more than 150 trees I were destroyed or damaged and I storm sewers were unable to I handle the torrents of rain waI ter which hurtled down gutters I and along road ways. Damage was expected to I reach thousands of dollars, but I city pólice said no storm-inI curred injuries were reported I to them. A Detroit Edison Co. spokesI man said 6,000 to 8,000 customI ers in Washtenaw and LivingsI ton Counties were without elecI trical service after the storm, I with about half that number in I Ann Arbor. Forty-seven Edison I jjrews lotaling about 160 men ivave been working continuously since the storm with the last of I fríe knocked-out service exl'pected to be restored by the Ij end of today, the spokesman I said. A total of 67 power wires I were downed by the storm, 50 I transformers were put out of I operation, it was reported. Some I Edison repairmen normally asI signed to Ann Arbor were in" I Monroe checking damage from I an earlier storm when the squall I hit this area. One of the most spectacular I escapes from injury during the I storm occurred at the site of ■ the new Mott's Children's HosI pital at the University Medical II Center. A funnel of wind and drivin'g I rain, described by James Spi I amore, 42, of 2004 Mary C I crine St., Ypsilanti, as "a si? I twister" ripped off the second I of a construction comI pany's office at the hospital site I i sent it spinning across a I toad into Women's Hospital. Spoonamore said he was , I among 20 men in the 160-footI long, 20-foot wide plywood build-i I ing when the "twister" struck. "We were on the first floor I watching the storm," SpoonaI more, a pipefitter foreman said. I "Suddenly I spotted this column lof rain coming right toward us I out of the north. It carne o1 II the Outpatient Building and tl I "eed off the pavement in 'a I p king lot. It was then I yellcd I' i he others that wc'd bel I il. We hit those fronl I and started running throiighïË that rain. We hadn't gone 20 ü"'"- steps when it hit the secónd'BB. floor and took it off. We lookedB' back and it just wasn't there."SB: City pólice who checked the MM scène said it was "just amaz-l; ing" that none of the lf í tion men had been injured.Mp Those who did not flee from theBJri building dived under tables and ■L■■ chairs on the first floor and 1 escaped unscathed, pólice said. I No one was on the second floor 11 when the column of rain and BB wind struck. lp Spoonamore said he and his II companion ran to the 1$ tient building where they met I : two doctors. The physicians Ijl companied the men back to the f debris - s t r e w n construction I building to check for injured, B but found none. i!. Another lucky escape was fmade by Robert G. Gebhardt of I ;; 804 Princeton St, a I board installer for the Michigan fc" Bell Telephone Co. As the storm ■ struck, Gebhsrdt was driving a small service truck in the 1100 I block of W. Liberty St. A high ■ tensión electrical wire was1 downed by the storm and feil M into the street. The arcing wire I set fire to a tire on the truck, j. but Gebhardt managed to flee 1 the burning truck without I ' jury. i ■ A Michigan Bell Telephone, I Co. ipokesman said at one timef I about 3,000 customers wer out ' I of service immediately after the 'tl storm but most of those are ij ■ pected to be back in service by I tonight. Most of the phones I were knocked out by drenched I cables, lightning bolts and I ing tree limbs, it was reported. te; University workmen spent the U entire night shoveling mud out P of the University-operated I dry building on E. Washington ■ St. The mud was washed into I m the building from the new I M tal School construction site. ]b ,'vlfred B. Ueker, U-M plant I P n-anager said there were four I Ë inches of mud on the main floor I m of the laundry and workmen I w were continuing the work of dig-, I & ging out today. Boxes of soap IH and other material was ruined , f ■ by the mud and water, he said. igft The entire basement of the! 1 building was flooded with wa-j 9 ter, he said. S Ueker said U-M crews were I pumping out flooded tunnelsj BI this morning. Also, the base-i jtl ment of the new University % ministrative Services Building ÍM JÊÊ