LIVONIA, Michigan – A child died and his mother was injured when a tornado struck suburban Detroit without warning, while five people were injured when a tornado in Maryland toppled structures and trapped people inside.
Officials in Livonia, Michigan, said the tornado touched down in several neighborhoods Wednesday afternoon and developed so quickly that there was no advance warning from the National Weather Service or others that would normally lead to the activation of warning sirens.
The storm uprooted a huge tree that fell onto a family’s home and through the roof, landing on the bed where a woman and her 2-year-old son were sleeping, officials said in a post on the city’s website. Crews worked for nearly an hour to remove the roof and parts of the tree, then lift the tree to remove the victims.
The child was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The mother was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
A 2-week-old brother who was in a crib in a separate room was not injured but was taken to a hospital for evaluation, the Livonia Fire Department chief said. Robert Jennison told WDIV-TV.
“This is a terrible tragedy for our community,” Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan said in the statement. “Our hearts are also broken and we send our deepest condolences.”
The National Weather Service in Detroit confirmed on social platform X that an EF1 tornado with a peak wind speed of 95 mph (153 kmh) passed through Livonia. The agency said the tornado traveled a path of more than 5 miles, uprooting trees and damaging some homes.
A weather service representative classified it as a growing storm that did not appear on their radars in time to issue a warning, according to city officials.
Tornado warnings were issued for parts of several other states Wednesday night, including Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
In Maryland, emergency crews responded to reports that people were trapped inside structures that collapsed after a tornado touched down Wednesday night.
The tornado was spotted in a suburban area of Montgomery County, northwest of Washington, the National Weather Service said in a social media post warning people in the area to take shelter.
There were reports of three collapsed structures in Gaithersburg with people trapped inside, said Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Pete Piringer.
Piringer said the most significant damage occurred when a large tree fell on a single-family home, leaving five people injured, including one with traumatic injuries. He said everyone was transported to a hospital.
Local television footage showed large downed trees that damaged homes when they fell.
David Pazos, assistant chief of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, said there have been many power outages.
“We don’t know what people’s needs are, so we have to go door to door to assess whether they need fire and rescue services or whether they need to be relocated due to damage to their homes,” he said.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
