Storms Cut Power to Thousands

The hailstones prompted Virginia Department of Transportation crews to rig a truck with a snowplow blade to push the hail from Route 29, a procedure termed "quite unusual" for this time of year by Lou Hatter, a department spokesman.

A wind gust of 63 mph was measured at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, and another such gust was recorded at Andrews Air Force Base, where 1.42 inches of rain fell from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. A 62 mph gust was reported at Nationals Park in the District.

At one time yesterday, Dominion Virginia Power reported 110,000 Northern Virginia homes and businesses without electricity. Just after midnight the figure had been reduced to 36,000. Pepco reported that the number of homes and businesses without power reached 26,000 at one point. By 12:11 a.m., the figure was 16,800, with a large number of homes and businesses without power in Southeast Washington.

Baltimore Gas and Electric said that 11,000 of the utility's customers lacked power for a time in the Washington area, many in Anne Arundel County. On Maryland's Eastern Shore, Delmarva power listed 4,800 homes and businesses in the dark, and the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative gave a figure of 2,600.

The threat of lightning prompted an early closing of the Washington Monument.

Fallen trees and wires, and inoperative stoplights halted or slowed traffic across the region from

Haviland Mill Road in Montgomery County to Lee Highway and Veitch Street in Arlington. Trees on tracks disrupted the Virginia

Railway Express schedule on the Manassas line, according to the VRE Web site.

In the McLean area, wind sent a tree crashing down on two parked cars, blocking two westward lanes of Dolley Madison Boulevard.

A townhouse in Prince George's County caught fire after an apparent lightning strike, but the blaze was quelled with little damage.

Staff writers Mark Berman, Bill Brubaker, Petula Dvorak, James Hohmann, Michael Laris and Elissa Silverman contributed to this report.