Severe storms damage homes, topple trees as Anne Arundel County is hit hardest

Severe thunderstorms swept across Maryland on Saturday, toppling trees and power lines, damaging homes and businesses, and knocking out electricity to thousands as tornado warnings, flash flooding and dangerous winds threatened the state.

The storm passed through Central and Southern Maryland, hitting parts of Anne Arundel County the worst, weather officials said. Though officials recorded only 0.7 inches of rainfall, that same area saw 60 mph wind gusts, Kyle Pallozzi, an NWS meteorologist, said.

“Pasadena to Rivera Beach, there were lots of reports of trees down,” Pallozzi said.

Wayne Lewis was recording on the front porch of his home in Pasadena when a tree fell on top of it and barely missed him.

Lewis said, if he had been standing just a little farther outside, he could have been seriously hurt. He had recently gotten new gutters and a new roof, which the tree damaged.

“You can’t get out the front. You have to go out the back” he said. “It’s going to be a little bit of work.”

Pallozzi said weather officials received 15-20 reports of trees falling on homes. More than 27,000 people were without power just before 7 p.m. — over 20,000 of which were in Anne Arundel County, according to the Baltimore Gas and Electric outage map.

Representatives from BGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The National Weather Service warned that “multiple rounds” of severe thunderstorms were expected in most of the state, bringing winds up to 70 mph, large hail and flash flooding. The risk of severe weather remained until 10 p.m., according to the weather service.

Tornado watches were issued for the city of Baltimore and Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Cecil, Harford, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot and Baltimore counties until 9 p.m., according to the Maryland Department of Emergency Management.

If you’re traveling, check your flight status. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport had about 40 cancellations and nearly 200 delays.

Historic bed-and-breakfast struck by lightning

The Wayside Inn, a 271-year-old bed-and-breakfast in Ellicott City, was struck by lightning, starting a fire in part of the inn around 3:30 p.m.

Joe Xu, the innkeeper, took over in 2018 and kept it afloat amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. Now he has to oversee its reopening and comeback following this fire.

There were no injuries and the fire was under control by 5 p.m., according to Xu, but repairs could take a long time.

“We don’t know when we’re going to reopen,” Xu said. “We don’t know how bad was that damage. We don’t know how long it’ll take for repairing.”

Early Saturday morning, a home in Gaithersburg caught fire after another possible lightning strike, a fire official said.

Air quality warnings

Although the skies were hazy Saturday morning, the smoke that blanketed the region Thursday and Friday cleared a bit Saturday afternoon. Most of the state remained under a Code Orange alert, meaning the air quality may be unhealthy for sensitive groups including children, older people and people with underlying health conditions.

Those in Southern Maryland had slightly better air quality conditions Saturday, according to the monitors from the Environmental Protection Agency.

By Sunday, the state will likely be under a Code Yellow, or moderate, air quality alert, though forecasts warn “the smoke may again be noticeable” as another wave enters the region.

Although there may be pockets of relief, the smoky conditions remain as the fires burn largely unchecked, said Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service based in Maryland.

Wildfires are burning in Ontario, Canada, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which U.S. officials have closed.

“The source of the smoke is going to continue on for certainly a week, probably,” Oravec said. “It’s just going to depend upon which way the wind’s blowing as to where the smoke is going to affect the most.”

Air quality alerts peaked Friday after days of smoke began to move from Canada, through the Midwest and toward Maryland. State officials told Marylanders to stay inside as much as possible as air quality became unhealthy. It was the worst air quality event since June 2023, when wildfire smoke from Canada engulfed the region for six days.

On top of the storms and poor air quality, heat indices also broke triple digits Saturday, triggering advisories.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article has been updated.