Possible Tornado Touches Down In Ocean City
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Ocean City is still in shock after a fast-moving funnel cloud tore through the area Thursday. People all over the resort town stopped what they were doing to capture dramatic images. Now, the National Weather Service is working to find out if a tornado officially touched down.
Crews are already out trying to clean up debris all over the road and the beach.
Kai Jackson has the latest.
Tornado, straight winds or storm winds. Whatever hit Ocean City, it clearly left behind some damage.
A massive and frightening funnel in the shape of a tornado descended on Ocean City Thursday around 3:50 p.m. The resort town got hammered as the storm passed through.
WJZ viewers used mobile phones and still cameras to capture amazing video and pictures.
"We did have some damage to mid-rise buildings, roof along the ocean front, some soffit damage, siding damage," Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan said.
Meehan says there were also damaged cars, uprooted trees and debris.
Baltimorean Kyle Hartzell had a front row seat to the storm. He and his family were in Ocean City for vacation, and he captured pictures of the funnel.
"We were standing outside for about five minutes watching it, and then we started to see this cloud starting to swirl a bit, and then about a minute later, the tornado came out, and the funnel started to come of the cloud, and then it touched down," he explained.
The National Weather Service will be the agency that finally determines what rolled through the Eastern Shore. At this point, titles aren't important to the mayor, citizens or tourists.
What matters now is, there were no reports of injuries, cleaning up and being prepared for any future storms.
"Right now, we have the Ocean City Fire Department on the scene and the Ocean City staff assessing the damage, but it doesn't look like anything other than some minor roof damage and damage to other surrounding buildings," Meehan said.
There's not a dollar estimate of the damage at this time.
Meehan says Ocean City also experienced power outages during the height of the storm.
