Storm aftermath Thursday morning in Gaithersburg. Photo courtesy: County Fire and Rescue Service Chief Spokesperson Pete Piringer.
The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed a tornado with winds up to 105 mph came through Montgomery County on Wednesday, starting in Poolesville and ending in Gaithersburg.
Luke Hodgson, director of the county’s Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said Thursday morning that Wednesday’s storm was “very volatile.”
According to NWS, about two dozen trees were snapped or uprooted around Tudor Farm along Whites Ferry Road, and doors to a barn reportedly collapsed. The tornado lifted and dropped around Darnestown Road, where more trees were snapped and uprooted. The storm went east across Seneca Creek State Park, continued east to the City of Gaithersburg, and went toward Old Towne Gaithersburg.
Hodgson said an “astute” emergency management specialist noticed the volatility of the storm in northern Virginia, and the county’s team was preparing for impacts in Poolesville when Leesburg reported a likely tornado.
One housing development in Gaithersburg was “particularly hard-hit,” according to NWS, and seven houses were condemned from trees and branches falling on them. And NWS noted five people were injured after a large tree with a three-foot diameter trunk fell on a house on Dogwood Drive.
The tornado followed a 12-mile long path overall, according to NWS.
“We had no forewarning whatsoever that the storm was coming,” Hodgson said during a briefing Thursday.
“A lot of people are wondering why we weren’t under a tornado watch,” he said, adding “we’ll get those answers in time.”
