Twisters Rip Up Property in Frederick County

Two tornadoes tore across part of southeastern Frederick County on Friday, taking down hundreds of trees, lifting roofs and shingles, tossing around lawn and patio furniture and leaving residents with debris-filled yards and fields.

"We were right in the middle of it," said Barbara Fouche of the Ijamsville area, who said the storm "wreaked total havoc."

She said the tornado that ripped across her neighborhood on Mussetter Road damaged her roof, broke windows and threw one of four columns from the front of her house into the back yard.

Effects of the twister in her area were widespread and "pretty devastating," she said.

In a statement released Saturday, the National Weather Service said it determined that two twisters raced across the Ijamsville area shortly after 2 p.m. Friday.

One roared over a path that was 125 yards wide and 2 1/2 miles long, with top winds estimated at 90 to 100 mph. The second, with a path of similar length, was about three times as wide and had maximum winds between 100 and 110 mph.

As the first twister crossed Ball Road, it lifted roofing, bent a wall, threw an air conditioner 15 feet and destroyed several metal-sided barns, the weather service said. The second, on a path east of the first one, snapped or uprooted several hundred trees, with many falling on homes, the weather service said. The area, a few miles east of Interstate 270, is a half-dozen miles north of Montgomery County.

A third, smaller tornado touched down in Carroll County, Md., the weather service said.