Recovery begins after tornadoes down trees and power lines, injuring 5 in Montgomery Co. - WTOP News (2024)

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Residents in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and other parts of the region have begun what will be a lengthy cleanup process after at least two likely tornadoes ripped through the area Wednesday night, toppling trees onto homes and leaving at least five people injured.

The National Weather Service sent crews around the D.C. area Thursday to assess the damage and determine the number of tornadoes that touched down, their strength and their exact path.

During a Thursday news conference, Montgomery County fire officials said several houses were damaged and five people were hospitalized. Firefighters responded to dozens of emergencies related to the storm, including collisions and downed wires, the county fire department said in a news release.

Across the region, the weather service issued 22 tornado warnings Wednesday, which is the fourth most in one day since 1986, according to 7News First Alert Meteorologist Brian van de Graaff.

‘Do I die?’: Harrowing moments when tornado hit Gaithersburg

Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman speaks with WTOP's Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer about cleanup efforts after a tornado swept through the city Wednesday night.

The Deer Park neighborhood in Gaithersburg bore the brunt of Wednesday’s sprawling supercell that produced the tornadic activity. A twister confirmed by trained NWS spotters hit Gaithersburg around 7:35 p.m. and left a trail of debris, structural damage and power outages in its wake.

Seven houses in Gaithersburg have been condemned, Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman told WTOP, and the Red Cross is in the city assisting families. Ashman said the cleanup started last night and crews have been working overnight.

“It’s literally night and day. A lot has been cleaned up.”

WTOP/Dave Dildine

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On Holly Drive in Deer Park, trees slammed into multiple homes, including Jorge Majano’s.

“I heard the hard rain. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty rough.’ And then once I hear everything flying around, and then I hear stuff banging on my window, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ And then a tree hit my roof, and then I hear a loud pop, a big thud, like boom!”

Majano said that boom was the sound of another tree hitting the front of his house.

“I was kind of terrified, because I was like, ‘What do I do now? Do I die?'” Majano said. “I stayed inside and then the firefighters knocked in and they told me to get out right away, and I did.”

Majano was uninjured, but just blocks away, on Dogwood Drive near Tulip Drive, the occupants of another home weren’t as lucky.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service personnel responded to that location for the report of a downed tree that caused a building collapse, trapping five people in the home, according to Assistant Chief David Pazos.

“An enormous hardwood tree, I mean the root ball on this has got to be over eight, nine feet tall. And this tree collapsed on the house during the height of the storm,” WTOP’s Dick Uliano reported from the scene of the home in the 400 block of Dogwood Drive.

All five were successfully removed from the home, Pazos said. Four were taken to the hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening and the other occupant had more serious, traumatic injuries, according to Pazos. All five occupants were adults. Three of them live there and two were visiting.

This enormous hardwood tree came down on the roof of this house on Dogwood Lane. The 400 block near Tulip. Five people were trapped one person has traumatic injuries all five taken to the hospital. ⁦@WTOP⁩ pic.twitter.com/X1CUPBNteC

— Dick Uliano (@DickUliano) June 6, 2024

It took crews about 20 minutes to work around “pretty significant damage” and rescue the occupants of the home, fire department spokesperson Pete Piringer said.

“They were trapped under a lot of debris and a large tree on top of them,” he said.

Firefighters also assisted people out of homes on nearby Rolling Road. Power was knocked out in the area and the destruction extended beyond houses.

“There is a lot of damage in this part of Gaithersburg, specifically on the east side of town. A number of streets are impassable. It took a while just to get over here — twisted wires, large trees down and, again, some structural damage,” WTOP’s Dave Dildine reported from the scene.

Cleaning up after historic storm system

During Thursday morning’s news conference, Director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Earl Stoddard said the damage could have been worse, with a total of about 15 tornadoes touching down across the state of Maryland.

NWS has sent four different survey teams to investigate storm damage in nine counties across West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. The weather service will be determining where tornadoes touched down and will release their findings Thursday afternoon and evening.

“At peak we had about 1,000 power outages across the county. We’re down to a couple 100 at this point and those will come back online,” Stoddard said. “There are a number of crews out this morning doing work removing trees from roadways, and from power lines as well. So that work will continue.”

Pete Piringer, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire & Rescue, told WTOP while there is still a lot of debris and wires from the tornadoes, nearly all the roads in Gaithersburg and Poolesville had been opened by Thursday morning.

The first severe weather alerts came from Loudoun County, where a severe storm capable of producing a tornado started and headed toward Maryland. While the exact route and the strength of the tornadoes is still being determined, the damage was severe in Poolesville, Maryland.

Here’s the apparent path of the tornado at this farm along Whites Ferry Road, in Poolesville. Several trees were knocked down and sheared off. Investigators will be on scene to make official determination of storm’s strength. @WTOP @WTOPtraffic pic.twitter.com/lXjgXmOTzC

— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) June 6, 2024

Thursday morning, standing in his driveway of Tudor Farm, along White’s Ferry Road, Milton Andrews said he saw immediate damage Wednesday evening after emerging from a safe room in his basem*nt.

“I had at least a half a dozen trees that had fallen across White’s Ferry Road, and had blocked it off,” Andrews said. “And four or five telephone poles were down.”

Thursday morning, he’s still surveying the damage.

“I don’t know how much house damage there is,” he said. “I want to have somebody come out and look at the roof — I’m pretty sure I lost some slate off the roof.”

He’s realizing many full grown trees have been ripped out, sheared off, and knocked over.

“There’s a row of white pine in back, roughly 10 of them — there’s one that’s standing,” Andrews said. “One lonesome pine.”

Andrews said his orchard has sustained damage: “My two best trees are both down.”

Patio furniture is “scattered all over, 100 feet away from the pool,” he said.

After he finishes surveying his property, he expects to spend a good part of his day on the phone: “I haven’t called my insurance agent yet, but I certainly will.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin told WTOP he’s sending his prayers to those affected by the storms and tornadoes.

“I’m always incredibly proud of the immediate work that our Virginia statewide emergency management team does in coordination with utilities particularly, and we’re gathering all that information and will be able to report back a comprehensive view,” he said. “But first and foremost, we’re rushing to the support of those that might have incurred some damage and on top of that lost power.”

Outages

WTOP’s Neal Augenstein, Cheyenne Corin and Dick Uliano contributed to this report.

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