A two-year-old boy was killed when a huge tree uprooted by a tornado landed on a family home in a Detroit suburb, as storms left a trail of destruction across the interior Northeast on Wednesday, leaving families trapped in their homes.
The tree fell from the roof and landed on a 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 transported to a local hospital and is in critical condition, the city of Livonia said in a statement, while the child was clearly dead at the scene.
“Crews worked around the clock for nearly an hour to remove the roof and portions of the tree, then lifted the tree with high-pressure airbags to extract the victims,” the statement said.
“This is a terrible tragedy for our community,” added Livonia Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan. “Our hearts are also broken and we send you 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 450 yards.
Elsewhere, a powerful storm produced a tornado on Wednesday that moved 45 miles across Montgomery County, Maryland. 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 people had to be rescued and all were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Firefighters said one of them suffered a “traumatic injury.”
“They were taken out of a room right here, under all this debris. There was some pretty significant damage, there were some injuries,” said Pete Piringer, spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Department. of Montgomery County, in a message on X.
He shared a video showing a huge tree uprooted on its side, having partially destroyed the house.
Videos uploaded to social media showing a massive funnel cloud over Gaithersburg — to the surprise of residents in an area unaccustomed to tornadic activity. “First #tornado I’ve ever seen, crazy MD!” one person wrote, giving their 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 was like, ‘Jesus, it could have been worse.’ » So, thank God, it was probably just an F0 or an F1. If he had gotten my truck, I probably would have died.
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. Fire crews were also investigating storm damage in the Williams Estates area of Baltimore County.
An emergency shelter was opened Thursday morning in Frazeysburg, a village in rural Ohio. No injuries were reported as what the local sheriff’s office described as a tornado caused considerable damage.
Showers and thunderstorms are expected today on the East Coast throughout the day Thursday, the National Weather Service said in its forecast, while a severe heat wave continues in western states and Texas.