Low visibility on roads, flash floods and tornado warnings created an interesting commute home for Prince George's County residents Friday evening.
The severe thunderstorms, which began shortly after 2 p.m. in the metro region, hit Prince George's County around 4 p.m.
With a tornado watch issued for the county through 9 p.m., some residents heard sirens blaring when there was a possibility of tornadoes forming near them. Hail was reported in Bowie, while some commuters spotted a funnel cloud in Greenbelt over Kenilworth Avenue and the beltway. But most of the county experienced heavy rains.
Here's how the storm affected residents:
- The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning through 9:30 p.m.
- More than 6,000 Pepco customers were without power in Prince George's County throughout Friday, according to Pepco's website. But by early Saturday morning, there were only about 1,000 customers still without power.
- Local airports grounded planes for most of the evening as the storm passed through the region, according to ABC7. However, planes departing from Dulles began running as scheduled around 10 p.m. BWI and Reagan soon followed.
- WMATA even shut down the Orange line Friday afternoon after a tree fell onto the tracks. The line was running normally later in the evening.
- The county opened its Emergency Operations Center. To sign up for alerts visit the Notify Me Prince George's website. The phone number to report weather related issues or concerns is 301-583-2256.
- The Nationals game scheduled for Friday was postponed until a later date.
This post was updated at Saturday at 12:46 a.m.
So what are you seeing out there? Is your power out? Are trees downs in your neighborhood? Add your pictures of the storm to this post.
