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Cries led to baby's rescue in flattened NH home

July 25 06:05:01 AM, Yahoo News

AP - A state official said Friday that a baby's cries led to his rescue after a possible tornado demolished his grandparents' lakeside home.

The infant's grandmother was killed Thursday on Northwood Lake in neighboring Deerfield. State Fire Marshal William Degnan said Friday that firefighters heard the baby's cries and found him in a void between the flattened home's first and second floors.

The body of the grandmother, Brenda Stevens, 57, also was found between the floors, Degnan said.

He said Stevens' husband, Harley, was blown out of the home.

"He was blown out the side of the building and found in the side yard," Degnan told The Associated Press before heading to the area.

Authorities have not released the boy's name. Concord Hospital said Thursday he had been admitted, but said the family asked it not to release further information.

Neighbors say the couple had been watching the boy while his parents, Harley Stevens' son and his wife, were at work.

Officials estimate that a half-dozen homes were destroyed and 100 damaged as violent storms swept northeast about 20 miles from the Epsom-Deerfield area on Thursday.

In Epsom, where some of the worst damage occurred, Fire Chief Stewart Yeaton said his concern Friday was that people not get hurt during the cleanup. He said the risks included the possibility of live wires still on the ground, weakened tree limbs and inexperienced people using chain saws.

"It's still a dangerous situation," he said.

A National Weather Service crew was in the area trying to determine whether the storm was indeed a tornado, as some claimed.

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