Livonia, Michigan — A child died and his mother was injured when a tornado hit a suburb of Detroit without warning, while five people were injured when another tornado in Maryland It collapsed structures and left several people trapped.
The first tornado hit several neighborhoods Wednesday afternoon, and formed so quickly that there were no warnings from the National Weather Service or other agencies that normally would have prompted sirens to be activated, officials in Livonia, Michigan, said.
The storm toppled a large tree that fell on a family’s home and broke the roof, landing on a bed where a woman and her two-year-old son were sleeping, authorities said on the city’s website. Crews worked for almost an hour to remove the roof and parts of the tree and then lift the tree to remove the victims.
Tornado consequences
The child’s death was certified at the scene, they said. The woman was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
A two-week-old baby who was in a crib in another room was not injured but was taken to the hospital for evaluation, Livonia Fire Chief Robert Jennison told WDIV-TV.
The National Weather Service in Detroit confirmed on social media X that an EF1 tornado with a peak wind speed of 153 kilometers per hour (95 miles per hour) had passed through Livonia. The agency said the storm traveled about 5 miles (8 km), uprooting trees and damaging some homes.
A weather service representative described it as a sudden storm that did not appear on their radars early enough to issue a warning, according to local authorities.
Alerts were issued in several states Wednesday night, including Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
In Maryland, emergency workers responded to reports of people trapped inside structures destroyed by a tornado Wednesday night.
The tornado was spotted in a suburb of Montgomery County, northwest of Washington, the National Weather Service said in a social media post, warning people to take cover.
There were reports of three collapsed structures in Gaithersburg with people trapped inside, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery Fire and Rescue.
The most significant damage occurred when a large tree fell on a single-family home, leaving five people injured, one of them with traumatic injuries. They were all taken to a hospital, he said.
Local television stations showed images of large uprooted trees that damaged houses when they fell.
There were many power outages, said David Pazos, assistant chief of Montgomery Fire and Rescue.
“We don’t know what people’s needs are, so we have to go door to door to see if they need fire and rescue services or need a ride because of the damage to their homes,” he explained.
Source: AP
