A two-year-old boy was killed when a huge tree uprooted by a tornado struck a family’s home in a Detroit suburb, as the storms left a trail of destruction across the Inland Northeast on Wednesday, leaving families trapped in their homes. .
The tree fell from the roof and landed on the bed where the child and his mother were sleeping around 3:30 p.m. in Livonia, Michigan — the latest fatality in a long and deadly tornado season.
The unidentified woman was taken to a local hospital and was in critical condition, the city of Livonia said in a statement, while the child was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Crews worked tirelessly for nearly an hour to remove the roof, parts of the tree and then lift the tree with high-pressure airbags to free the victims,” the statement said.
“This is a terrible tragedy for our community,” said Livonia Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan added. “Our hearts are also broken and we send our deepest condolences.” The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado rated EF-1, with winds up to 95 mph, touched down in Livonia and moved 5.5 miles with a width of 1,500 feet.
Elsewhere, a powerful storm produced a tornado that moved 45 miles through Montgomery County, Maryland, on Wednesday. Five people were injured in the town of Gaithersburg, Maryland, north of Washington DC, when a large tree fell on their home. Four of the five required rescue and all were taken to a local hospital for treatment – firefighters said one suffered a “traumatic injury”.
“They were pulled from a room right here underneath all this rubble. There was some pretty significant damage, there were some injuries,” Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Pete Piringer said in a statement. post on X.
He shared a video showing a huge tree uprooted on its side, partially destroying the house.
Videos uploaded to social media show a huge funnel cloud above Gaithersburg – to the surprise of residents of an area unaccustomed to tornado activity. “First #tornado I’ve ever seen, crazy about MD!” he wrote A person on the NBCWashingtonwithout giving the name.
A storm chaser, Mark Monis, captured the moment the tornado hit Gaithersburg while he was sitting in his car. He told NBC Washington: “I thought, ‘Jesus, that could have been worse.’ So thank God it was probably just an F0 or F1. If he had taken my truck, I would probably be dead.”
At least four homes were damaged elsewhere in Montgomery County, with 88 weather incidents reported between 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters were also investigating reported storm damage in the Williams Estates area of Baltimore County.
An emergency shelter was opened in Frazeysburg, a hamlet in rural Ohio, on Thursday morning. There were no reports of injuries at the scene as what the local sheriff’s office called a tornado caused widespread damage.
Rain and thunderstorms are expected throughout Thursday across the East Coast, the National Weather Service said in a forecast, as a severe heat wave continues across western states and Texas.
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