Crews clean up debris, power lines from Wednesday’s storms

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Crews cleaned up fallen trees and fixed power lines Thursday after two bands of severe storms pounded the region.

“Both of those [storms] produced a lot of damage across the area,” said Brandon Peloquin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The lower part of Severna Park was hit hard, and some residents reported seeing a tornado tear through the Belleview Estates community between 4 and 5 p.m., said Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire

Department.

“There was considerable damage in a three-quarter-mile swath of land with numerous large trees down blocking driveways, pulled power poles to the ground,” Tobia said, adding no injuries were reported.

NWS officials spent Thursday following up on damage reports around the area, and could not confirm the extent of the storm, Peloquin said.

Officials were surveying damage in Anne Arundel, Calvert and Charles counties to determine if it was caused by straight-line winds or a tornado, he

said.

The first line of storms ripped through the area around 4 p.m. Wednesday, and a tornado watch was in effect until 8 for Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties and Baltimore City.

A second band of storms from the west passed south of the Baltimore area, bringing heavy rain in the evening.

By midday Thursday, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews had restored service to more than 150,000 customers, according to BG&E officials. Most customers were expected to have power restored by Friday evening, officials

said.

Most of the outages occurred in Anne Arundel.

Howard officials warned it may take several days to remove all the damaged trees and debris from the roads.

Elysha Krupp and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com

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