Maryland Weather: Severe Thunderstorm Sends Tree Crashing Into Home, Leave Thousands Without Power
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Severe thunderstorms toppled trees and brought flooding rain and power outages to parts of Maryland Monday evening.
Temperatures in the upper 80s and high humidity helped to fuel some strong to severe storms that moved through parts of the state. Those storms produced heavy downpours and damaging winds.
Some parts of the state saw up to three inches of rain, with the heaviest amounts near Laurel, Columbia and Ellicott City.
Due to the heavy rain, flash flood warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for the area but have since been canceled.
More than 3,500 BGE customers were without power as of just before 6 p.m., the majority of which were in Howard County. As of 7:40 p.m., that number had climbed to more than 4,300. By 10:45 p.m., the number of customers without power had fallen to a little over 2,100.
In Ellicott City, a tree fell on a home on Macalpine Road. The homeowners told WJZ they had just moved in a month ago.
They're now talking to insurance adjusters about how they're going to rebuild.
Also in Ellicott City, a large tree fell onto Frederick Road, blocking traffic. Downed trees made it difficult for residents like Liam Sullivan to get around Monday evening.
"It's almost like a maze to get through the entire neighborhood," he said.
Edgar Bowers, who has lived in Ellicott City for more than five decades, said he has never seen the water rise as quickly as it did Monday, including during the 2016 and 2018 floods.
"It came up faster than it did during ... Hurricane Agnes which was huge," he recalled.
Another resident, Lisa Thompson, who lives in the Dunloggin neighborhood, said Plum Spring Creek never fails to flood during storms.
"The trees were just bending down, you felt like you Dorothy in the middle of The Wizard of Oz," she said.
She left her home Monday as the waters rose.
"As beautiful as this neighborhood is, it gets a little scary when you have this kind of storm," she said.
Officials in Howard County had urged people in historic Ellicott City to seek higher ground immediately. That order has since been lifted.
In Montgomery County, officials reported trees and power lines were downed due to the storms. A lightning strike also caused a house fire near Darnestown.
Lightning Strike Causes Montgomery County House Fire; More Than $400K In Damage Reported
Maryland has another chance at seeing some storms on Tuesday. Much of the state west of the Chesapeake Bay is under a marginal risk for severe weather, with the far western portion of the state as well as the Eastern Shore at a lower risk.
Stay up-to-date with the latest forecast by downloading the WJZ weather app.
