NEW YORK, July 9 (UPI) -- Severe storms that moved quickly through the Northeast killed four people in central New York State and a child at a camp in Maryland.
The dead in Smithfield, N.Y., included a woman and her 4-month-old baby and two neighbors, one a relative of the mother, officials said. Smithfield Town Supervisor Rick Bargabos said the four were in three houses that were destroyed Tuesday evening, one of them moved 500 feet by a possible tornado.
"The houses are obliterated," Bargabos told Syracuse.com. "There is not a piece of framework together."
Jon Bisset, executive director of River Valley Ranch, a Christian camp in Carroll County, a rural area northeast of Baltimore, said the storm approached at about 7 p.m. as campers were gathered for a meeting in an open pavilion. Staff members began moving the children into a secure building.
"The intense storm knocked down numerous tree's and limbs in a matter of seconds and nine children were injured," Bisset said in a post on the camp's website. "I am sad to say that one of the children died from his injuries. Please pray for all of these children and their families."
High winds knocked down trees, leaving thousands of people without power in New York and other states in the area. A restaurant at the New York State Fairgrounds in East Syracuse lost part of its roof.
