For Lasheda Whitfield, 15, it seemed like the end of the world.
She was playing cards in the living room of a three-story rowhouse at 1222 E. North Ave. yesterday afternoon when the sky went black and the wind picked up. In the kitchen, Sharnetta Jones, 17, was with her 1-year-old daughter, who was propped up in a high chair.
Suddenly, a wall of wind slammed against the Formstone facade, shaking century-old rafters, pushing against its plate-glass windows.
Within seconds, the windows snapped, sending shards of glass through the house. Pieces hit Miss Jones in the leg as she scooped up her baby from the highchair.
"Boom! The whole place started shaking,"Miss Jones recalled later. Terrified, she raced to the basement with her daughter. Her sister, Angela Jones, 20, and Miss Whitfield fled from the living room, stumbling down the basement steps, slamming the door behind them.
"The wind blew in, and there was this big explosion," Angela Jones said.
Huddled in the basement, they tried to make sense of the noise. Then, everything stopped.
Wallace Whitfield, 17, had watched the whole thing from a house across the street. He saw the roof fly off and go crashing down to the sidewalk, blocking the front door of the rowhouse. He knew his sister and his friends were inside.
When the wind died down, he raced across the street and started digging through the pile of wood and shingles and tar paper in front of the door. The door was jammed. He kept digging. Minutes later, he was able to free his sister and his friends.
lTC "I saw the roof cave in," Mr. Whitfield said later. "I ran over and got the kids out."
Shortly after making the remark to a reporter, Mr. Whitfield had an asthma attack because of the stress. Medics placed him in an ambulance, gave him oxygen and took him to the hospital.
Baltimore Fire Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres said medics reported that Mr. Whitfield would be all right.
"I thought the world was coming to an end," Mr. Whitfield's sister said afterward, standing in the street, sobbing from the ordeal. "I thought we were going to die."