Published: July 31, 2008 08:50 am      

Damage reported in Friendsville; severe weather out of Pa.

CUMBERLAND — Emergency personnel were assessing damage Wednesday evening in the Friendsville and Accident areas of Garrett County from what may have been caused by a tornado.

A spokesman for Garrett County Emergency Management said there were reports of damage at both locations — downed trees and power lines as well as windows blown out of homes.

The spokesman also said a trailer in Friendsville reportedly was damaged when a tree fell on it as was a liquor store in the same community. “The storm definitely ran a swath through the county,’’ he said.

Emergency personnel in Garrett could not confirm a tornado had touched down.

Allegheny Power reported at about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday that 372 out of 20,538 customers in the county were without power. The utility estimated service could be restored by Thursday afternoon.

Tim Thomas, Allegany County 911 Communications Division dispatcher and the local observer for the National Weather Service, said the storm system that prompted tornado warnings being issued for Allegany and Garrett counties in Maryland and Mineral and Hampshire counties in West Virginia came out of Pennsylvania and moved into Garrett.

Thomas said, “The storm system was well defined and Dopler radar indicated rotation.’’ The tornado warnings, according to Thomas, began about 6:15 to 6:20 p.m.

Thomas said the storm system, at approximately 7:30 p.m., was moving through Hampshire County, W.Va., and had “weakened somewhat.’’ Thomas also said more thunderstorms were moving out of Pennsylvania into Garrett County, but those storms, he said, were not as strong as the one that resulted in the tornado alerts.

The severe weather, according to the National Weather Service, began about 6:20 p.m. when NWS radar indicated a severe thunderstorm with strong rotation was located six miles northwest of Westernport, near Franklin, and was moving southeast at 35 mph.

The storm, according to the NWS, had a history of producing a tornado near Accident and funnel clouds near Bittinger. Locations that could have been impacted by the storm also included Lonaconing, Westernport, Piedmont, Fort Ashby, Short Gap and Romney.

A spokeswoman for the Mineral County Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security said about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday the area had dodged a bullet. “We have not had anything,’’ she said.

A spokesman at Hampshire County Central Dispatch in Romney said the area did not get any severe weather. He said the storm system, at approximately 7:45 p.m., was moving toward the Slanesville and Levels areas. “We have not had any reports of any damage,’’ he said.