WASHINGTON — A weak tornado touched down in Salisbury on Maryland’s Eastern shore Monday afternoon and tore through more than a mile of the city, flipping cars, damaging homes and uprooting trees, the National Weather Service confirmed.
The EF-1 tornado brought winds of up to 105 mph, Bill Sammler, an NWS meteorologist said Tuesday, during a news conference with Salisbury city officials. The tornado touched down about 1:40 p.m. Monday afternoon near Salisbury University along U.S. 13 and Dogwood Drive, according to the weather service.
The tornado was at its most intense shortly after touching down when it struck a strip mall, tossing cars around a restaurant parking lot. The tornado then skirted across the open athletic fields of the university, sparing the campus, before slamming into a residential neighborhood.
Surveillance video shows cars go airborne as a confirmed EF-1 tornado moved through Salisbury, Maryland, on Monday. https://t.co/AoHI5V8IBj pic.twitter.com/lH32aQqsWV
— ABC News (@ABC) August 9, 2017
A tornado with 105 mph winds hit Salisbury Monday, meteorologists have confirmed. https://t.co/hB4ggRLAxO pic.twitter.com/qVR44UrBm8
— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) August 9, 2017
EF-1 tornado confirmed in Salisbury, Maryland: #MDwx https://t.co/nCTnIFpyfV pic.twitter.com/qEQNVv1klO
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) August 9, 2017
WATCH: Dramatic surveillance video shows how strong wind sent a car tumbling down the road in Salisbury, Maryland. https://t.co/56d5N5PqcI pic.twitter.com/qa5dcHGPKO
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 8, 2017
On the scene of possible tornado in Salisbury pic.twitter.com/OjKUPbbeXK
— Liz Holland (@LizHolland5) August 7, 2017
There were no reported injuries, said David Shipley, Wicomico County’s director of emergency services. Officials said the tornado partially collapsed an industrial building on the city’s south side and caused two homes to be condemned.
The Enhanced Fujita scale, which is used to rate tornadoes, classifies EF 1 tornadoes as storms causing moderate damage, which are capable of pushing homes off foundations and moving vehicles.
Shipley told WTOP the tornado swept through a residential area of between four to six blocks. “We were very lucky … only two homes in the area had to be condemned and we only have six others that were damaged because of the trees falling,” he said.
The tornado toppled trees and power lines. Electrical meters were ripped off six houses along with the downed power lines.
“There were some very, very large trees blown over and trees broken in half,” Shipley said.
Repairs were made and power restored to about 200 homes Monday night, officials said.
The weather service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning shortly before the tornado touched down but did not issue a tornado warning. Sammler said the storm was difficult to track via radar because the rotation was very low to the ground, which is more typical of a tropical tornado.
“It really didn’t give us much clue as to when it was going to happen until the time it actually touched down, so it wasn’t one of those kind of classic type of plains-type of tornadoes that you see the rotation on the radar, 10, 15, 20 minutes before the event,” he said.
Monday’s tornado was the second to hit Maryland’s Eastern Shore in as many weeks. An EF-2 tornado ripped through Stevensville, Maryland — about 70 miles northwest of Salisbury — in the early morning hours of July 24, destroying several homes and injuring one person.
