A storm swept through the Washington, D.C., suburbs Wednesday evening amid tornado warnings, damaging a few homes in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and injuring a handful of people, officials said.
Authorities advised people to take shelter in Montgomery County, Maryland, after the National Weather Service office in Washington issued a tornado warning and called it a “particularly dangerous situation.” .
“We believe there were multiple tornadoes,” said Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.
A tornado reportedly struck a residential neighborhood in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, about 20 miles northwest of the nation’s capital, Mr. Piringer told reporters.
He said there were at least three occupied buildings there that were struck by trees.
Authorities said they evicted at least five occupants from one of the homes. Four suffered non-life-threatening injuries and one suffered a traumatic injury, Montgomery County Deputy Fire Chief David Pazos said on social media.
Downed trees and power lines littered roads in Gaithersburg, Piringer said, and damage was reported in the neighboring communities of Poolesville and Germantown.
Video on social media showed a menacing gray-colored wall descending toward the ground in the distance in Poolesville as the weather service issued several tornado warnings for the area, including Harford County, Baltimore County and Baltimore City . Most were due to expire at 10:15 p.m.
A flood watch was also in effect for Baltimore and surrounding areas, while flash flood warnings covered parts of Cecil County and southeast Harford County, where authorities said they were responding to flooded roads and carried out several water rescues.
The United States has been subjected to an intense wave of deadly tornadoes in recent weeks, with most of the destruction taking place in the Plains and Midwest.
Although tornado activity in the DMV is not uncommon, it is less common than in other areas of the country. Parts of Maryland were placed on a tornado watch late last month.