At one point, 200,000 utility customers across Maryland were without power, according to the PowerOutage website. Of those, 64,000 were reported in Prince George’s County alone. Trees fell on homes and roads in many places as winds gusted over 60 mph amid torrential rain and hail. The storm swept west to east across the region, sparing few, if any, jurisdictions. In few places was the impact more severe than in Montgomery County’s Olney area. According to fire department spokesman Pete Piringer, 20 homes were damaged by falling trees. About half a dozen families were displaced, he said, and indicated there could be more. Parts of Prince George’s County also appeared severely affected. The Berwyn Heights, College Park and Greenbelt areas of the county “were hit hard by the series of storms that came through,” the Prince George’s County Fire Department said. He reported several reports of wires and trees down. A man was seriously injured when a tree fell on a home on Lakeland Street in College Park, according to Michael Yourishin, a fire department spokesman. In just one example of the storms’ widespread impact, the city of College Park canceled a 7:30 p.m. meeting of its mayor and council, citing a citywide power outage. In the area, thickets of fallen trees and broken branches spread across storm-swept roads, according to a witness. The storm, which darkened the skies as it swept from West Virginia into the Washington area, proved a riveting sight for many as lightning flashed repeatedly and streaked the ground in jagged streaks. Trees that withstood the furious onslaught twisted and turned under the whip of the wind. A gust of 70 mph was measured near Centerville in Fairfax County, Va., according to a report received by the National Weather Service. At Reagan National Airport, instruments recorded a gust of 52 mph. But the storm’s departure to the east allowed the orange rays of the setting sun to shine beneath the dark edges of the rain clouds. Even as sunset light began to flood the area and rainbows could be spotted, lightning still played among the departing clouds. As always with such summer storms, the impact varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction or even street to street. In Upper Northwest Washington, two people were in a car at 42nd and Chesapeake Streets NW when a tree fell on the vehicle. Both occupants walked away uninjured, according to the D.C. Fire Department. The wires later fell on an unoccupied vehicle, causing it to catch fire, the fire department said. Washington Nationals baseball game postponed. It will be played on Wednesday as part of a doubleheader split, the team said. Weather has reportedly forced the cancellation of a baseball game at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Md. One photo shows a large tree, cut near the base of its trunk, lying in the parking lot. In various parts of the area, witnesses saw hail bouncing as it hit the pavement. In Fauquier County, Va., a witness told the Weather Service of hail nearly an inch in diameter. At both Reagan National and Dulles airports, more than 0.40 inches of rain fell in one hour. Tuesday turned out to be another particularly rainy day in an already rainy month. As if to emphasize the connection between summer, heat and storms, temperatures plummeted as the storm passed. In about four hours, what was a balmy afternoon in the 90s at Reagan became a cool evening in the 70s.
