Daniel D. Harvey swept the sidewalk in front of his Hampden law office yesterday - where long planks of wood and tar paper from the roof of a nearby building had amassed in a pile after a Tuesday afternoon lightning storm toppled trees and disrupted electricity to thousands.
Power had been restored to most of the 19,000 residences in the city affected by the storm, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. In Hampden, an area of the city especially hard-hit, people were cleaning up and marveling at the damage.
Officials at the National Weather Service said a tornado was not responsible.
Christopher Strong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said winds gusted between 60 mph and 70 mph in Baltimore. "We didn't see any indication on radar, or hear anything from the public about funnel clouds or anything, so I wouldn't suspect that they were anything more than just really strong wind gusts," he said.
That doesn't diminish the storm's power, however.
"The water came down in buckets," said Bill Herd, 54, a retired salesman, who said he watched the storm from his living room window and had his power knocked out for five hours. "It was fierce. Oh my God! Chestnut Avenue looked like a river," he said. "It was a mess. We really got hit worse than any other part of the city."
Along Chestnut Avenue, near Hampden's main drag, 36th Avenue, four cars were damaged by fallen trees: a Red Chevrolet Lumina Z34, a newly purchased charcoal gray Ford Focus with temporary tags, a white Chrysler PT Cruiser and a dark green Chevrolet Lumina.
Finnerteas, which bills itself as the "Tea Room of Hampden," had extensive damage to its roof, several neighbors said. A sign taped to the door read "Tea Room Closed Today."
Theresa Downs, 53, who works at Village Flower Mart, said, "That storm come up so fast. It was raining. You couldn't see nothing. It was like a white napkin came up in front of you."
Pam Mandell, 36, her husband, and their 1-year-old son, Gitan Mandell-Balogh, experienced the storm from a slightly different perspective.
On their way home from a Florida vacation, their plane circled the airport as the storm made its way through the area.
"[The pilot] said that it was a storm, a massive storm," Mandell said. "We were under it, so we could have been hit by lightning. So we had to circle around the storm."
They returned home - on 34th Street in Hampden - to find their power out and their backyard in disarray.
A neighbor's tree fell into the yard, downing a power line that still hung precariously yesterday morning.
"The power lines broke the fall, thank God," Mandell said. "So I have live wires in my yard. It looks like a rain forest. It was a beautifully landscaped garden. We were able to rescue one tomato. I guess my grapevine is coming down, too. Unbelievable."
nicole.fuller@baltsun.com