SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Crews across the eastern U.S. worked Tuesday to clear downed trees and power lines and restore electricity following severe storms that killed at least two people, cut power to more than a million customers at their peak, and forced thousands of flight delays and cancellations.
The storms that pounded a swath of the country stretching from Alabama and Tennessee to the Carolinas and New York on Monday continued to lash northern New England with wind and rain a day later. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down Tuesday in the Atlantic Coast town of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, though a survey team was still determining its strength.
The twister damaged homes and vehicles, downed trees and power lines, and may have damaged the water treatment plant, which remained operational, according to a statement from the town's Select Board. There were no reports of injuries.
Rain also pounded Vermont, which experienced historic flooding last month that inundated its capital city and damaged thousands of homes, businesses and roads. Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said swift rescue teams were ready if needed in the west of the state.
Flash flood warnings were issued in Maine, where storms dumped 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13 centimeters) in an area around New Gloucester and Lewiston-Auburn, in the southwest of the state, said weather service meteorologist Sarah Thunberg.
Monday’s storms spawned tornado watches and warnings in 10 states, with around 30 million people under a tornado watch in the afternoon. Forecasters received more than 900 reports of wind damage, including nearly 300 from North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
A preliminary assessment of damage in Knoxville, Tennessee, found that an EF-2 tornado touched down Monday, with winds up to 130 mph (209 kph) and a path as wide as 200 yards (183 meters), said the weather service's office in Morristown, Tennessee.
An EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 85 mph (137 kph) uprooted trees and damaged the outside of buildings near Lake Norman in North Carolina, the weather service’s office in Greenville-Spartanburg confirmed.
“My rocking chairs flew off of my front porch and I had a couple of pots break and stuff," Jacob Jolly said at his home in Mooresville, a Charlotte suburb that sits along the lake. “And then about 20 minutes later during the storm, I heard the transformer right here on this pole. It exploded and all the power went out immediately. And it’s about lunchtime today and still no power.”
In Westminster, Maryland, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore, dozens of vehicles were trapped by power lines that had fallen onto a highway. No injuries were reported, and utility workers turned off the electricity, allowing the 33 adults and 14 children in the vehicles to get out safely, Maryland State Police Superintendent Col. Roland Butler said at a news conference Tuesday.
Nick Alexopulos, a spokesperson for Maryland’s largest power utility, BGE, called the destruction “catastrophic.”
“This is damage that if you worked in electric distribution at BGE for your entire career, you may see it once,” Alexopulos said at a news conference.
First responders and others worked as a team and saved lives Monday night, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.
“There were people who were stuck and stranded in cars who were able to sleep in their own beds last night,” the governor said.
More than 1.1 million customers were without power Monday evening across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia, according to poweroutage.us. But by mid-Tuesday afternoon, power had been restored to all but about about 200,000 customers in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and Tennessee.
By Monday night, more than 2,600 U.S. flights had been canceled and nearly 7,900 had been delayed, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. The trouble continued Tuesday with hundreds of delays and dozens of cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration, which rerouted planes around storms on Monday, warned Tuesday that low clouds and wind could affect airports in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and San Francisco, and that thunderstorms could cause delays in Boston, Atlanta, Florida and Chicago.
At least two deaths have been blamed on the storms.
In Anderson, South Carolina, a large tree was uprooted and fell on a 15-year-old boy Monday, according to the Anderson County Office of the Coroner. The high school sophomore’s death was classified as resulting from a severe weather event, officials said.
In Florence, Alabama, a 28-year-old worker in the parking lot of an industrial park was struck by lightning Monday and died, police said in a social media post.