Toddler Dies, Mom Hurt After Tornado Rips Through Detroit Area: Police

LIVONIA, MI — A 2-year-old boy was killed and his mother was injured after a massive tree fell through the roof of their Livonia home during a tornado Wednesday afternoon, according to police.

Police said the mother was lying in bed with her 2-year-old son inside a home in the area of Schoolcraft Road and Interstate 275 at 3:37 p.m. when a tornado uprooted the massive tree.

The tree crashed through the roof of the home, pinning the mother and her son under the tree, according to police.

Officials used roughly a dozen chainsaws for about an hour to cut apart the tree and free the woman and the boy, according to police.

The boy was killed in the incident and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she was listed in critical condition, according to police.

A 2-week-old child was in a crib in a different bedroom inside the home with the child’s grandmother, according to police.

Neither of them were injured in the incident, but were still taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation, according to police.

"We appreciate all the efforts of Livonia Firefighters and Livonia Police in trying to bring about a better outcome," Livonia Mayor Maureen Brosnan said. "Our first responders are the best around. We also thank all the caring neighbors who worked hard to clear trees and assist our firefighters and officers on the scene."

A EF-1 tornado touched down at Schoolcraft and Eckles roads in Livonia during a round of severe thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

The tornado moved northeast with winds at 95 miles per hour, uprooting large trees, snapping tree limbs and damaging residential housing, according to the weather service.

Forecasters said the tornado continued northeast through Rotary Park before lifting in the area of Seven Mile and Middlebelt roads, where just a few miles north a gas station canopy collapsed.

The canopy fell onto a gas pump, which then caught fire, but officials quickly extinguished the flames, according to police.

There were no serious injuries, but one person was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, according to police.

Forecasters said the tornado had a maximum width of 450 yards with top winds reaching 95 miles per hour. It was on the ground for roughly nine minutes and traveled five miles, according to the weather service.

There were still nearly 14,000 people without power Thursday morning in the metro Detroit area, mostly in the Livonia area, according to the DTE Outage Map.

The news comes less than a month after multiple tornadoes struck in the Kalamazoo-Portage metro area in southwest Michigan. The tornadoes left a trial of destruction, including trapping roughly 50 people were trapped inside a FedEx facility.