Anne Arundel Tornado Leaves Thousands Without Power

Power companies, tree-removal services and maintenance crews worked round-the-clock yesterday to repair the damage caused by a violent storm that cut a swath through Bowie and a tornado that touched down in Severna Park.

Prince George's County officials estimate that the high winds Thursday evening left 9,000 homes without power, damaged about 50 houses in Bowie, uprooted 100 to 150 trees and sent thousands of electrical wires onto rooftops, sidewalks and roads. No injuries were reported.

"It sucked the water out of the hot tub," said Kirstyn Miner, who lives on Bowie's Korvale Lane. "The wind caused a power line to rip off, and it is now wrapped around a tree in our back yard."

In Anne Arundel County, at least 53 houses in Severna Park and nearby Cape St. Claire were heavily damaged, 15 of them left uninhabitable, and thousands lost power in what weather officials confirmed was a tornado. Bowie sustained "straight-line wind damage" but no twister, Chris Strong, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said yesterday.

As of late last night, fewer than 300 customers in Anne Arundel still lacked electricity. In Prince George's County, the number was about 700.

Meteorologists said the tornado was an F1, on a scale that runs from F0 to F5.

It formed about 6:30 p.m. Thursday behind a shopping mall at Gov. Ritchie Highway (Route 2) and McKinsey Road. It traveled north at 25 mph with a wind speed of 90 mph -- not enough to lift a roof from a well-built house but plenty strong enough to bend and break trees. It traveled about two miles north, crossing Cattail Creek and the Magothy River, and entered Pasadena before it lifted. Its maximum width was about 250 yards.

"My son looked out the back yard and saw the gray coming across there," said Tina Carlsen, pointing toward the back fence of her property on North Drive in the Lower Magothy Beach community. "And then we heard that whistling sound you hear in the movies, and I yelled, 'Let's get in the basement!' And we ran down there, and you could hear the noise above."

Scott Seivert said he stood at his back door and watched the funnel cloud roll into his yard, slicing through trees like a chain saw. He yelled for his parents to flee the family room, and everyone went to the basement. Moments later, a tree smashed into the room where they had been. None of the Seiverts was hurt.

One Severna Park man, who fell from his roof after the storm, was treated for minor injuries.

On North Drive yesterday morning, the wind had left a backyard trampoline twisted around a tree near the curb. A crisscrossing mass of collapsed trees lay on yards. A fleet of utility trucks idled nearby along Lower Magothy Beach Road, awaiting orders.

Near Cattail Creek, five large hardwood trees of one to two feet in diameter were uprooted, the Weather Service said.