SILVER SPRING, Md.—Crews across the eastern U.S. worked in early August 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 pounded a swath of the country stretching from Alabama and Tennessee to the Carolinas and New York on August 7 and continued to lash northern New England with wind and rain a day later.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down August 8 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 in July that inundated its capital city and damaged thousands of homes, businesses and roads. Flash flood warnings were issued in Maine, where storms dumped four to five inches in an area around New Gloucester and Lewiston-Auburn, in the southwest of the state, said weather service meteorologist Sarah Thunberg.
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The August 7 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.
More than 1.1 million customers were without power Monday evening on August 7 across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia, according to poweroutage.us. But by the next afternoon of the next day power had been restored to all but about 200,000 customers in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and Tennessee. (AP)
