This allows workers and resources to go beyond the normal day-to-day operations of the department.

“It’s a pacing issue. You can’t throw everything into cleaning up when more damage could be coming tomorrow,” Dyer said.

Storms continued Saturday and Sunday, with five storm-related fatalities in Michigan Sunday, said David Young, chief meteorologist at WLNS TV 6. Two were in Ottawa, two in Saugatuck and one in Lansing near Mount Hope Highway and Guinea Road.

Sparrow Health System said several minor injuries have been reported as a result of the storms.

“Basically we’re in kind of a pattern,” Young said. “Storms are forming out west and moving in our direction. We’ve got another chance for a round of storms tomorrow. I don’t anticipate tomorrow to be any different.”

The bulk of the damage done, he said, was the result of straight-line winds. Most of the wind speeds across the state were up to 60 mph, Young said.

He said wind speeds during the storms ranged from 40-80 mph, with a report of winds as fast as 65 mph in East Lansing.

“Across the downstate they’ve had significant severe weather with flooding and wind damage,” said Dave Lawrence, meteorologist for the National Weather Service forecast center’s Gaylord office.

On Sunday, which marked the 55th anniversary of the deadliest tornado in Michigan history, tornado warnings were issued to a dozen counties. These expired by 6 p.m., according to The Detroit News.

Young said he was unable to confirm that a tornado touched down in the state until the National Weather Service performs its survey, which could be as early as today.

Sunday night Ingham County was under a flood watch, while Eaton, Ionia and other counties had flood warnings, according to The Weather Channel’s Weather.com.

With crews working day and night the amount of Lansing Board of Water & Light customers without power Sunday had lessened to only 5,800 from 19,000 the night before.

As storms blew in Sunday afternoon, the count went back up to 15,500 homes without power, said Mark Nixon, communications director for BWL.

“The last storm knocked out 10 power circuits,” Nixon said. “But it’s more than that, it’s the scattered outages by homes or fallen trees that really take more time.”

Today’s storms formed over Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa and traveled toward Michigan, Young said.

Lawrence said Michigan’s location places it in the middle of two opposing weather systems.

“The weather pattern is such that we have a low pressure system on the west half of the U.S. right now, and a high pressure system down in the east,” Lawrence said. “We’re sort of in between these two weather systems.”

When the jet stream is aligned between those two pressure systems, it crosses the Great Lakes region, Lawrence said.

This year is a La Niña year, which causes an abnormal cooling of the ocean waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Lawrence said this year has been fairly strong for a La Niña, which can affect weather patterns around the world.

As of Sunday afternoon, Lawrence said there was a fairly pronounced squall line in the southern two-thirds of the lower peninsula. A squall line is a long, narrow and far-reaching area of thunderstorms.

“These things are notoriously impossible to predict,” Lawrence said. “But this is definitely on its way out.”

Tim Hull, deputy chief of the East Lansing Fire Department, said more than a couple dozen power lines were downed between East Lansing and Meridian Township.

“We have adequate staff on tonight and tomorrow to deal with things,” Hull said.

In East Lansing, fallen trees and branches caused minor damages to homes. There were no fires, accidents or fatalities in East Lansing, Hull said.

Just after Saturday night’s storms, every police and fire unit was out scanning the streets for damages, Dyer said.

“Crews took notes on what needed cleaning up or what wires were probably still hot,” Dyer said.

“It’s getting to the point, though, where workers need breaks because they’ve been out for too long.”