Tornadoes Touch Down in Pr. George's, Charles

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Spring Storm: Tornadoes Topple Trees, Rip Roof

A series of tornadoes strike Maryland, sending trees into houses and ripping the roof off a school. No one was injured.

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"I saw debris from the roof rotating," said John Crisman, a firefighter at the station across the street from the school.

Prince George's School Superintendent John E. Deasy said the public school system was looking for ways to temporarily accommodate students from the damaged school but had not decided where.

The chain-reaction crash occurred about 12:55 p.m. and shut down the outer loop of the Capital Beltway near the Ritchie Marlboro Road exit for several hours, Maryland State Police said.

Three of the most seriously injured were struck while on foot at the scene. One was the driver of an auto that had become disabled; the others were her parents, who had come to wait with her for a tow truck.

Witnesses told investigators that the crash was set off by a woman driving a Honda Accord at excessive speed and weaving in and out of traffic, Trooper 1st Class Michael Thompson said.

The Weather Service expects the sometimes-heavy rain to continue. But clearer skies and a high in the 70s is likely by Wednesday.

The Annapolis Cup, the annual croquet match between teams from St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy, was officially canceled because of the threat of lightning. But a St. John's spokeswoman said it went on -- unofficially.

The Earth Day Festival, a free concert on the Mall, was cut short.

"Holy Moses!" actor Chevy Chase marveled from the stage as it started pouring. Moments later, a festival official urged people to take refuge in the Smithsonian museums "for the next 20 or 30 minutes" because of the possibility of lightning. The show resumed, but producers later pulled the plug for good.

Lightning struck a Continental Airlines flight headed from Newark to Dulles International Airport about 10:30 a.m., forcing the jet to land at Baltimore Washington International Marshall Airport, a BWI spokesman said.

Staff writers J. Freedom du Lac, Martin Weil and Michael Laris contributed to this report.