1 killed as severe storms pound New Hampshire
Violent storms destroyed several homes, damaged about 100 others and killed a woman Thursday in a 25-mile stretch of central New Hampshire, authorities said.
About a dozen people were hurt, Gov. John Lynch said at a news conference. He declared an emergency in five counties and called up the National Guard. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be in the area today, he said.
“It appears that there are at least 100 homes damaged and probably at least a half-dozen homes which have been completely destroyed,” Lynch said after a helicopter tour.
State Fire Marshal J. William Degnan said Brenda Stevens, 57, was killed in Deerfield in one of the homes that was destroyed. Her husband and 3-month-old grandchild were injured, he said.
The National Weather Service was trying to determine whether a tornado was responsible for the damage, which stretched from about 10 miles east of Concord nearly to Maine.
The weather service had issued a tornado warning, and some witnesses described at least one funnel cloud.
The storms also delivered torrential rains to western Maine. A funnel cloud was reported in Bridgton, Maine, where trees were uprooted by high winds.
“It was raining cats and dogs, and maybe a cow or two,” said Tracy Higley, a police dispatcher in Rumford, Maine.
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