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Storm brings hail
Large stones noted, but little damage reported
Friday, Aug. 21, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JOHN WHARTON
Jared Jameson cuts up one of seven trees that toppled over or were pulled out of the ground during Wednesday night's storm outside his home off Oakley Road north of Avenue.
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A tornado warning for St. Mary's triggered alarms Wednesday and accompanied reports of large hail pelting one community, but damages generally were limited to falling trees that kept utility crews, and some homeowners, busy into the next day.
On Thursday morning, Jared Jameson was sawing up seven trees, both pine and oak, that came down on his property along Oakley Road north of Avenue. Some of the trees toppled over, bringing up a broad patch of ground with their roots, but at least one was tugged upward by the strong winds.
"I'd say it was a baby twister," Jameson said. "I watched that [pine] tree rise up and twist, and it was gone."
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning Wednesday afternoon for western St. Mary's County and sirens went off alerting those in the storm's path. Volunteer weather spotters reported to the National Weather Service hail in the Compton area ranging in size from 1 inch to 2.75 inches, about the size of a ping pong ball or golf ball.
Second District volunteer firefighters from Valley Lee reported to the St. Mary's County Department of Public Safety seeing funnel clouds in the Callaway area, but they did not touch the ground.
"For a tornado warning, it didn't develop into much, and that's a good thing," David Zylak, director of public safety, said Thursday. There were only two calls for wires down, two commercial building fire alarms and one residential fire alarm. "We did blow the take-cover sirens" located next to firehouses from Leonardtown and south, Zylak said.
Two dozen people from Lord Calvert trailer park in Great Mills went across the street to the high school to take shelter during the warning, he said. At St. George Island, "we had a lot of rain, a fair amount of wind," said Francis Jack Russell (D), president of the county commissioners. "We fared well."
John Zyla, weather observer in Ridge, said he had "a lot of rain, but not a lot of wind." He recorded 1.32 inches of rain there, but no hail. There was a lot of lightning south of Lexington Park as the storm moved southeast. "It was booming most of the time," Zyla said.
Donnie Tennyson of Dameron recorded 1.81 inches of rain. Other locations north in the county were barely affected by the storm. Floyd Abell in Hollywood recorded only .06 of an inch of rain. The tornado warning expired at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Crews from Clear Wave Solutions, a subcontractor for Metrocast Communications, toiled in Thursday morning's heat to restore cable services to affected homes in the St. Clement Shores waterfront community near Compton.
At his home near Avenue, Jameson kept things in perspective as he put more gas in his chain saw, as family members looked on. "It was just enough to make a man realize who's in control — Mother Nature," he said. "I guess we better count our blessings."
