LIVONIA, MI – Tragedy struck a suburb of Detroit when a sudden tornado led to the death of a two-year-old boy and left his mother critically injured. The unpredictable storm, which touched down in Livonia, uprooted a colossal tree, which then crashed onto their home. The city officials confirmed the incident on their website, stating the storm had caused significant damage across various neighborhoods on Wednesday.
The fallen tree penetrated the house, collapsing onto a bed where the mother and her child were sleeping. Despite emergency crews spending an hour on-site to extricate the victims from the wreckage, the toddler was pronounced dead at the scene. His critically injured mother was immediately taken to a nearby hospital.
The couple’s two-week-old baby, who was in another room at the time of the incident, remained unscathed but was transported to a hospital for a precautionary evaluation.
Conveying her condolences, Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan called it a “terrible tragedy”. Brian Kahn, the Director of Livonia Emergency Preparedness, added that there was no prior warning from the National Weather Service about the storm. Instead, a representative from the weather service labeled it as a spin-up storm, which didn’t appear on their radars in time to issue a warning.
The National Weather Service later confirmed that an EF1 tornado, boasting a peak wind speed of 95 mph, had passed through Livonia. Over its course, the storm downed several trees and caused widespread damage to residences.
Elsewhere in Maryland, numerous structures reportedly collapsed, trapping individuals inside, after a tornado was spotted in the Gaithersburg area. Reports indicate three structures in the area were affected, injuring five people and prompting power outages. Emergency workers were still issuing tornado warnings for the state and its neighboring regions.