LIVONIA, MI — A toddler was killed and his mother injured when a tornado struck the Detroit suburbs without warning, while five people were injured when a tornado in Maryland collapsed buildings and trapped people inside.
Officials in Livonia, Michigan, said the tornado ripped through several neighborhoods Wednesday afternoon and developed so quickly that there was no advance notice from the National Weather Service or others that would normally have prompted the activation of warning sirens.
The storm uprooted a huge tree that fell on a family’s home, coming through the roof and landing on a bed where a woman and her 2-year-old 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 and then lifted the tree to extract the victims.
The toddler was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. The mother was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
A 2-week-old sibling 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 extend our deepest condolences.”
The National Weather Service in Detroit confirmed on the social platform The agency said the destroyer traveled a path of more than 5 miles, uprooting trees and damaging some homes.
A weather service representative called it a spin-up storm that did not show up on their radars in time to issue a warning, city officials said.
Tornado warnings were issued Wednesday evening for parts of several other states, including Ohio, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
In Maryland, emergency responders responded to reports of people trapped in structures that collapsed after a tornado struck Wednesday evening.
The tornado was spotted in suburban Montgomery County, northwest of Washington, the National Weather Service said in a social media post warning people in the area to take cover.
There were reports of three collapsed structures in Gaithersburg that trapped people, said Pete Piringer, spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service.
Piringer said the most damage occurred when a large tree fell on a single-family home, injuring five people, including one with traumatic injuries. He said they were all taken to a hospital.
Local television images showed large fallen trees damaging homes as they toppled.
David Pazos, assistant chief of Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services, said there were 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 need to move because of damage to their homes,” he said.