Officials Confirm EF-1 Tornado In Howard, EF-0 Tornado In Frederick Counties Thursday
COLUMBIA, Md. (WJZ) -- The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down in Howard County and an EF-0 touched down in Frederick County on Thursday afternoon.
This was the second tornado to hit Howard County within the span of one week.
The first tornado, rated an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, touched down in the Columbia area on May 23. Another tornado hit the Glenelg area Thursday afternoon.
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People across Howard County are still cleaning up, and some roads are still blocked following Thursday's tornado.
"We are just finishing our efforts regarding last week's tornado and we expect to complete our new cleanup efforts over the next week, said Kris Jagarapu, Howard County's bureau of highways chief.
Howard County officials address yesterday's tornado @wjz pic.twitter.com/o4187TEqLj
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) May 31, 2019
The National Weather Service said that the twister packed an estimated 100 mile per hour winds during its 4.5-mile long course.
"For the first time ever, we were able to confirm this was a tornado from our latest doppler radar, it was able to see the debris swirling in the tornado and it being carried along."
Howard County officials said the May 30 storm knocked out power to more than 3,000 homes and forced more than 30 roads to close. It also caused significant damage to a public works facility in Dayton.
Nobody was injured during the incident but significant damage was done in Glenelg where extensive cleanup is underway.
Ten Oaks Road was one of several roads closed thanks to downed trees. The intense winds even ripped roofs off of homes.
"Our DPW, our first responders have been working non-stop," Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said.
Ball said that power has been restored to almost all BGE customers in the area.
"There were anywhere between 4,000 and 6,000 BGE customers out and we had over 30 roads that had to be closed," Ball said.
It's still too early to tell what the estimated cost of damage is in Howard County, but Ball said, "we're resilient and hopefully this will be the last one we see for a while."