Days of deadly storms cause widespread outages, damage in Maryland

A barrage of powerful thunderstorms and damaging winds left behind 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 storms caused major damage in the area Friday evening, according to the Baltimore Gas & Electric outage map. By noon, more than 10,000 customers were still waiting for the lights to come back on.

Sandy Point State Park was closed on 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 major damage to their home, 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 last night to clean debris and get traffic lights back up and running. While the clean up needed in the city is extensive, there have been no injuries reported, Zapata said.

Trees were uprooted in some places, 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 the woman 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 on 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 on Saturday and city pools could have extended hours. The high temperatures for 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.

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