Friday night’s storm system produced an EF-1 tornado that touched down in Baltimore City and County, producing winds of over 100 mph and knocking down part of an Amazon.com warehouse, killing two people.
The twister cut a path 2½ miles long and about 150 yards wide as it raced east for five minutes, said Jim Lee, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s office in Sterling, Virginia.
It left a track of intermittent damage, flipping over a tractor-trailer, ripping down part of the warehouse, and tearing off the roof of a nearby apartment complex in Dundalk, he said.
The warehouse collapse happened at a loading dock area at the Amazon sorting center, Amazon said.
Amazon said the victims were “third-party contractors” and not Amazon employees.
One of them was pulled from the rubble overnight Friday and died at the hospital. The body of the second person was found early Saturday.
The fire department had to bring in a crane and other heavy equipment to remove collapsed concrete and other debris.
The Weather Service’s report came after it sent damage-assessment teams to the Baltimore/Dundalk area and to Mount Airy to see whether tornadoes had touched down there.
Structural damage was reported at a shopping center in Mount Airy and elsewhere in the area as powerful winds accompanied an arriving cold front.
Saturday evening, Lee said the Mount Airy survey team was still working.
In Baltimore City, the fire department said damage to the Amazon warehouse involved a section of an outer wall measuring about 50 feet by 50 feet that collapsed. An adjacent part of the roof also collapsed.
Amazon spokesman Dave Clark, the senior vice president of operations, said in a statement Saturday: “The safety of our employees and contractors is our top priority and at this time the building remains closed. We are incredibly thankful for the quick response from emergency services. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families impacted by Friday evening’s tragic event.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.