Updated Sept. 4, 2026, at 2:24 p.m.
Lake Lansing Park South is closed until further notice after Thursday’s storms knocked down dozens of trees and crushed part of the park’s main shelter.
Photos posted Friday by Ingham County Parks show uprooted trees, broken limbs covering parts of the grounds and damage to the pavilion.
County officials said the damaged portion of the shelter cannot be used for the rest of the season. People are being asked to stay away while crews work to clear the park and assess the damage.
All other Ingham County parks are open, including Lake Lansing Park North.
The damage at Lake Lansing Park South was part of a larger stretch of destruction across northern Ingham County. Trees were reported down around East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett and Williamston.
Ingham County Deputy Emergency Manager Rob Dale said most structural damage appears to have been caused by trees toppled by straight-line winds in excess of 65-miles-per-hour.
“We’ve had so many windstorms that it seems the trees are doing their best, and we’ve had so many of these high wind events this summer that, you know, it only takes one to hit it," Dale said.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Thursday afternoon for northeastern Ingham County after radar detected rotation near Webberville and Bell Oak. A separate warning covered parts of Livingston County.
As of late Friday morning, the National Weather Service had not confirmed a tornado in mid-Michigan.
Dale said the far-reaching nature of Thursday's storms is what made them particularly damaging.
"We've certainly had storms that have had some stronger winds in them, but they're typically more isolated," Dale said. "This one, we had damaging anywhere from Lansing through Meridian Township to Williamston. The Mason area had some damage. We had some reports in Leroy Township of damage. It wasn't quite as bad as you got to the south, but even still, it had some trees down closer to Stockbridge and Dansville."
Additional findings will be posted by the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.
