Storms Bring Damage, Flooding, Downed Power Lines Throughout Mass.

WINTHROP (CBS) - Fast moving storms caused damage across Massachusetts Wednesday afternoon. The storms packed intense rain, wind and lightning.

Just before 4:00 pm, a powerful down-burst moved through Winthrop, snapping massive limbs, cracking gates wide open and blowing windows out of frames.

"It was howling, it was blowing at least I would say 60 miles per hour, it was swirling it was gray you couldn't see anything," one resident said.

"A lot of trees, big limbs, branches, our umbrella flew up, our picnic table, a lot of things went flying, Plexiglas a lot of glass, windows broke," said Marie Finn, who has lived along Winthrop Harbor for 30 years.

Finn said she has never seen anything like this storm. "This was the worst storm I've ever seen, even more than a snowstorm," Finn said.

Donna Hanson said the damage to her Winthrop home will be costly to repair. "Everything is soaking wet, second floor, third floor and we just had the placed sided," Hanson said. "And water just right through, seeped right through, windows everything, we need new ceilings."

Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for parts of Essex, Suffolk, Plymouth and Norfolk Counties as the storms moved across the state.

In Lynn, the downpours flooded roads near Commercial Street.

In Marblehead, Harold Mellor says a tree "exploded" onto his car on West Shore Drive.

On Fairview Road, a once beautiful tree created an ugly mess. Neighbors marveled over the massive trunk snapped and peeling like a twig. "Incredible wind, pieces of trees flying by. A huge crack, I look out the window and electricity is dead," said Tony Jonaitis of Marblehead.

Winds also toppled trees on parked cars in Dorchester, and Lynn. "I look in the backseat and I see a bunch of leaves in my backseat," said Julia Mezias. "There's no windshield. I double checked and there was all the glass from my windshield in my backseat."

The heavy downpours flooded out Commuter Rail tracks between Natick and Worcester. The MBTA warned riders that the Worcester Line is running up to 20 minutes behind schedule.

MEMA said there were more than 12,000 power outages as of 6:00 pm.