Storms leave trail of felled trees, power outages across Maryland
BALTIMORE -- Thousands are without power and felled trees are complicating morning commutes after severe storms blew through central Maryland on Thursday evening.
As of 7 a.m. Friday, over 24,000 BGE customers are without power thanks to over 850 active outages. The company said it is working as safely and quickly as possible to restore power. Most of the affected people live in Baltimore County and Baltimore City.
The storms generated a tornadic waterspout that destroyed homes in part of Smith Island. The waterspout landed onshore and caused significant damage to the Somerset County community, according to Gov. Larry Hogan.
Stunning footage shared with WJZ shows the vortex tearing through the island.
The storms a mess in Baltimore, flooding some streets and felling large trees, particularly in northeast Baltimore. No injuries have been reported.
Northeast Baltimore saw two inches to four inches of rain, At least 65 trees had fallen down, 18 of which were found to be blocking roads, Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement.
On Westfield Avenue, a tree crushed a car and pierced through the roof of a home. WJZ reporters Amy Kawata and Kelsey Kushner were on the scene.
On Harford Road, a busy throughway were flooding was reported, businesses were damaged and debris litters the street Friday morning.
The storms spawned tornado and flood warnings across the state.
"This storm was another reminder of how smaller storms can turn into severe and damaging weather events," Gov. Hogan said Friday morning. "We continue to stand ready to assist the local response, and are now tracking a second storm system moving into our region this evening.
After the storms passed over Maryland, the governor announced the state's emergency management team was tracking the damage from the storms and coordinating with local jurisdictions.
