'Within minutes, it hit us': Cleanup continues in Carroll County after storms knock out power

HAMPSTEAD, Md. -- Leah Rogers sat outside Outlaw Smokehouse BBQ, her closed business, Wednesday awaiting the power to be restored.

"Half of Hampstead's out of power. Half of it's back. Manchester's is without power," Rogers said. "But, a lot of damage with trees."

Electricity finally returned to Outlaw Smokehouse BBQ around 3 p.m., nearly 23 hours after Tuesday's storm knocked out power to more than 100,000 BGE customers in Maryland. More than 12,000 BGE customers in Carroll County were without power Wednesday morning after the storms.

"A lot of tree damage. Leaves. Branches," Tom Breen said from his front porch awaiting power to be restored.

Breen described how the portion of his building's roof flew off and landed across the street at a snowball stand on North Main Street. His wife Olive was home during the storm when he was at work.

"It was just terrible. Never heard anything like that in my life before," Olive Breen said. "I've been in wind storms before, but it was never this strong."

Main Street remained closed Wednesday after a tree fell on power lines at Greenmount Station.

"This has all taken place at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. We're still without power. I'm just worried about the food I have in the refrigerator," Hampstead Main Street resident William Farrell said. "I've been here 15 years and it's the worst one I've ever seen."

Doug Mcghee is the maintenance worker at his apartment building. He swept up branches out front Wednesday afternoon.

"We were surrounded by the dark clouds and, within minutes, it hit us," Mcghee said. "You saw the signs of a storm coming and two seconds later, it was here."