There was some wild weather in the Northern Virginia area last night:
Two major local school systems are closed today because of power outages from last night’s swift-moving and violent thunderstorms, which left a Fairfax County man dead, scores of trees and power lines toppled and more than 200,000 homes and businesses without electricity.
The Annandale-area man was killed when a massive oak tree smashed into a white 1995 Toyota 4Runner on Hummer Road in Annandale just before 3:15 p.m., at the height of the first wave of storms, authorities said. Another Annandale-area man, the driver, was injured.
In Bethesda, a tree fell on a car near Greentree and Fernwood roads, trapping the driver, a 40-year-old woman, who was rescued with minor injuries, authorities said. WRC (Channel 4) showed footage of a man being pulled, unharmed, from a car after a tree fell on it on River Road in Bethesda.
The storms, with high winds and blinding rain, pounded the region well into the night and might have spawned small tornadoes in Falls Church; in Fairfax County; near Stafford, Va.; near Bel Alton, in Charles County; and near the Anne Arundel-Calvert county line. National Weather Service experts planned to survey damage and investigate tornado reports today.
I can’t remember the last time that there were actual tornado warnings spread across such a wide area in this neck of the woods.
