BOSTON -- New England residents are starting to clean and repair communities torn to pieces by a fierce storm that ripped through New Hampshire and Maine Thursday, claiming the life of an Epsom, N.H. grandmother but sparing a 3-month-old baby.

Watch Report | Unedited Video: NH Storm Damage

Authorities said Brenda Stevens, 57, was killed in Deerfield, N.H., when the house she was in collapsed during the violent storm. Her husband and the baby were injured but survived the vicious winds and were recovering in Concord Hospital Friday morning.

Searchers were still looking for other victims in the Northwood Lake area, where the storm ripped 50 to 100 houses apart as it raked the area Thursday just before noon.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire's Gov. John Lynch declared a state of emergency in five counties and thousands of residents were still without power.

Utility companies said early Friday about 1,000 customers were still without power in the Alton-Barnstead-Strafford area. There were another 200 in Ossipee, Effingham and Freedom, plus about 100 around Epsom, Northwood and Pittsfield.

On Route 107, crews were continuing to clear away trees that took down power lines, while others were working to move debris.

Tom Williams barn in Barnstead, N.H., was picked up and tossed. His house was mangled and most of trees came down.

"I thought the house was going to come right off. I lost a corner of it here, but that can be repaired. That's no problem there. But it felt like the whole house was going to come right up in the air and go," he said.

"We were sitting watching TV and I saw it coming down through here and I grabbed the two kids and ran 'em into the bathroom and that was it," Williams said.

"The devastation is a track that runs across the whole town and is about the width of four car lanes, with complete breakdown lanes, and the area is basically flattened," Barnstead Fire Chief George Krause said.

The Merrills saw their garage picked up and thrown across the road. They spent the night without power.

The area has been restricted because of the power outages and downed power lines.

"I used to think storms were pretty exciting, but not anymore," said Joynce Hennessey, a woman who lives down the street from the house where Stevens was killed.

"She's a grandmother, loved living on the lake, like all of us. We've all known each other for years and years," she said.

The same storm system also dumped torrential rains in western Maine towns, causing outages that at one point knocked out virtually all of the eastern part of the state.

"It was raining cats and dogs, and maybe a cow or two," Rumford Police Dispatcher Tracy Higley said after a downpour in the western mountain town.

A funnel cloud was reported in Bridgton, where trees were uprooted by high winds.

Kirk Apffel of the National Weather Service office in Gray said a team will be sent to the site Friday to inspect the damage and determine whether a tornado had hit the area.

Central Maine Power Co. reported more than 3,000 outages late Thursday afternoon affecting customers from York County in the south to Dover-Foxcroft in Piscataquis County.