Strong Tri-State storm downs trees, power lines

July 26, 2008|By ANDREW SCHOTZ

TRI-STATE -- A brief, but strong storm rolled through the Tri-State area on Saturday, taking down trees and power lines.

A Washington County emergency services dispatcher said the areas hardest hit were near Maugansville and Broadfording Road to the north and near Rohrersville Road to the south.

Broadfording Road at Gossard Mill Road was closed. Other roads were partially closed, the dispatcher said.

A summary posted online by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., said trees were reported down around Maugansville and Fairview roads and Salem Avenue.

Dispatchers received and sent out calls about power lines arcing or coming down at Broadfording Road, Washington County Technical High School and elsewhere.

Other problems were reported in locations scattered throughout the county, including the West End of Hagerstown, the dispatcher said.

Two-thirds of an inch of rain fell in Hagerstown, according to www.i4weather.net, a Web site maintained by Hagerstown weather observer Greg Keefer.

Howard Silverman, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Sterling, said there was a report of hail the size of a quarter in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle.

A weather summary posted on the National Weather Service's Web site said the report came from a "trained spotter" in Charles Town, W.Va.

"It didn't even rain over here," a dispatcher in Morgan County, W.Va., said.

In Pennsylvania, the storm went from around Fort Littleton in northern Fulton County down to the Maryland state line from about 3:15 to 4:30 p.m., said Barry Lambert, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in State College, Pa.

A Weather Service report online said utility poles and wires were knocked down in and around Mercersburg, Pa.

Wind gusts in the Mercersburg area were estimated to be more than 70 mph, the online report said.

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