Days of deadly storms cause widespread outages, damage in Maryland

A barrage of powerful thunderstorms and damaging winds caused wreckage in Maryland on Thursday and Friday, leaving one state park shuttered, communities without traffic lights and at least two people dead.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Anne Arundel County, where tens of thousands of residents woke up without power Saturday after Friday’s storms, according to the Baltimore Gas and Electric outage map. By 6:30 p.m., more than 3,000 customers were still waiting for the lights to come back on.

Lydia Parker, a spokesperson for BGE, said in an email that power would be restored to a majority of customers late in the evening on Saturday. She added that the storm “impacted supplies to substations in the area, which is extending outage lengths.”

“The nature of the damage is complicated, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate customers’ patience as we work to restore service to all customers,” said Parker.

Sandy Point State Park was closed Saturday because “there is no power due to last night’s storm,” according to a post from Maryland State Parks.

Mitchelle Stephenson, a spokesperson for the Annapolis mayor’s office, said the damage in the western part of the city was “pretty shocking.” At least 15 properties in the city were damaged, she said.

Two families in Annapolis were displaced because of damage to their homes but the city has helped them, said Bud Zapata, a spokesperson with the Annapolis Fire Department. He added that the Office of Emergency Management has been working since Friday night to clean up debris and get traffic lights back up. While the cleanup needed is extensive, there have been no injuries reported, Zapata said.

Trees were uprooted, toppling over streets and power lines. Traffic lights were out in the parts of the county closest to the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday morning.

One woman was killed in Montgomery County during Thursday evening’s storms, according to Maryland-National Capital Park Police. Officers were called to the Matthew Henson Trail around 9 p.m. after a woman was struck by a fallen tree, police said, and she died from her injuries.

Minutes earlier on Thursday, Prince George’s County Police responded to rescue another woman who was trapped under a tree in Upper Marlboro, NBC Washington reported. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Storms largely missed the Baltimore area Friday evening, but nearly 2,000 people in the city were without power overnight following a day of record heat.

Though the heat advisory issued by the National Weather Service has expired, Baltimore remains under an extreme heat alert, which means cooling centers will be open Saturday and city pools could have extended hours. The high temperatures Saturday are expected to hit 90 degrees, according to the weather service.

Cooling centers for each county are listed on the state’s Department of Health website. Those without power in Anne Arundel County can cool off in the public libraries, police stations and senior community centers listed on the county’s website.

Maryland health officials are reminding residents to protect themselves from heat-related illness.

Banner reporters Brenda Wintrode and Bria Overs contributed to this article.

This article has been updated.