Homeowners, utility crews and municipal workers kept cleaning up downed trees and debris Wednesday afternoon even as another boomerang-shaped storm system targeted the Washington area.
“We’re making good progress,” said Rob Gould, a spokesman for Baltimore Gas & Electric Company. “But we’re keeping one eye to the west.”
On Tuesday afternoon, storms slammed into the metropolitan Washington region, bringing sudden downpours, hail and strong winds. Uprooted trees fell onto houses and cars and blocked streets in Northwest Washington, Maryland and Northern Virginia.
On Wednesday, the District’s Department of Transportation closed South Capitol Street and Malcolm X Avenue due to additional flooding.
“The flooding and the heavy rains we had loosened the roots around the trees,” said Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin. “It doesn’t take as much wind to bring them down.”
By Wednesday afternoon, some 13,000 Pepco customers remained without power from the previous night. The majority of the outages were in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties but about 600 customers in the District of Columbia were facing another night in the dark. Meanwhile, almost 8,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers were without power in Northern Virginia. Prince George’s BG&E customers without power fluctuated between a few dozen and more than 100 throughout Wednesday afternoon.
In the Lewisdale neighborhood of Adelphi, roots from toppling trees upended and broke nearby sidewalks.
“It looks like a roller coaster,” said Susan Hubbard, a spokeswoman for the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation.
Danny Martinez said trees slammed into two family cars and his sister saw a tornado funnel cloud in the sky as the family hustled into the basement for shelter.
“It was not a regular storm, it was not just a shower,” said Martinez, 42. “It had to be a tornado. Everything was just so dark.”
The National Weather Service office in Sterling said Wednesday that it had received reports only of wind damage from weather spotters, police departments and other contacts in Prince George’s County.
Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, crews from the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works returned to Lewisdale, the same community where flood waters had filled basements and lapped at first floors just two weeks ago.
Derek Thomas, an 18-year employee with the department, said the summer storms have meant a lot of tiring 12-hour days.
“It’s just back to back,” he said. “It’s just non-stop.”
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