KENTWOOD, MI – Kentwood Mayor Stephen Kepley was driving back to town this morning to support city staff who are helping residents affected by “very localized” storm damage that may have been caused by a tornado.

Leisure Acres condominiums northwest of Eastern Avenue and 52nd Street SE were hit particularly hard, said Kepley, passing along information from Kentwood responders.

“It looks like the storm picked up the garages and took them away,” he said. “It does look like there’s a path whether it be straight-line winds or tornado. My understanding is the meteorologists are leaning toward tornado.”

Kepley said the storm damage centered between 44th and 52nd streets, from Division to Kalamazoo avenues. Kentwood opened a city facility at 355 48th St. SE for a Red Cross shelter and 54 people – many of them residents of Leisure Acres – stayed there Sunday night, he said.

Kentwood public works crews are out Monday morning clearing debris from roads. The city also plans to open a parking lot for people to bring debris from the storm, Kepley said.

That location is not yet finalized.

“Our crews are out clearing streets, clearing paths (for emergency vehicles). They’ve been going all night at this,” Kepley said. “We’re going to clear the streets and right of way. There are going to be a lot of trees on private property and (the homeowners) are going to have to make that happen. We’ll help out where we can.”

Kepley, who was elected Kentwood mayor last year, said he was out of town for a leadership conference.

Matt Vande Bunte covers government for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at mvandebu@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.