Anne Arundel Tornado Leaves Thousands Without Power

On Whittier Parkway in Cape Arthur, a crowd watched a crane lift a towering oak from the remains of a ranch home. Said onlooker Maggie Coleman: "I've never seen one come down on a house before."

All over the Kenilworth, or "K," section of Bowie, north of Route 50 and west of Route 301, chain saws buzzed, generators hummed and children who had been allowed to stay home from school played outside homes that remained without power.

Dozens of residents were dragging debris from their property, conferring with neighbors, waiting for insurance company adjusters and hiring contractors.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Tina Longo of Bethesda, who stopped by her parents' home on Kornett Lane in Bowie to view the damage and offer moral support. "We had all gone to a family dinner in Crofton, then my mom calls me, and she's, like, crying -- and she does not cry.

"I get over here today and see the back yard, and I completely understand why she was so upset," she said yesterday.

Downed trees covered the back yard at the home of her parents, Bob and Dana Radtke. Two-story-tall evergreens that had shaded the yard lay uprooted. A wooden tool shed was leveled. The transformer that had powered their home rested 100 feet down a nearby hill, Bob Radtke said.

Their dogs -- Jake, a Labrador retriever, and Bella, a Doberman -- still appeared shaken as Dana Radtke and her daughter walked them yesterday afternoon.

"They were in the house when the storm happened, and they were obviously terrified," Dana Radtke said. "They wouldn't go out when we got home. We tried to take them out, but they refused to go outside the house until today."

Wendy Eady stood outside her home on Kemmerton Lane discussing the storm with neighbors Katie Brady and John Kylus. Kylus had been approached by a drive-by contractor who offered to cut down a damaged tree in his front yard for $800. Two neighbors spent 30 minutes and did the work for free.

The severe weather "was really scary," said Brady, who watched part of the storm from her front porch with her father. "The two giant trees in our front yard just split open and went down. The wind was blowing in one direction, then it changed to the other direction in a blink. The wind was blowing so hard we could hardly get into the front door. My dad put me in, then he just lay against the door."

Eady said she had just heard a televised news broadcast about a "rotation between Largo and Bowie" when her dog started acting weirdly.

"The hair stood up on his back, and he started barking and growling. And that's when the house started shaking, and I heard a loud noise, a loud humming noise," she said.

Her family, which had gone to a restaurant for carryout, sat temporarily transfixed in the driveway as their patio umbrella sailed over the top of the house and trees went horizontal from the force of the wind.

"I opened the door and there was this giant wind funnel that just sucked the air out of the room," Eady said.

Staff writers Sandhya Somashekhar and Martin Weil contributed to this report.