TALBOT COUNTY, Md. — Powerful storms swept through Talbot County Tuesday night, downing trees, damaging power lines and tearing apart a local produce stand, as residents spent Wednesday cleaning up the wreckage.
Wind gusts in Easton reached as high as 60 mph, and the town received about two inches of rain over the course of a couple of storms.
Along Route 50, the storm ripped the roof off Taylor's Produce stand and dragged the structure into the field behind it.
Along Route 50, Tuesday's storm ripped the roof off Taylor's Produce stand and dragged the structure into the field behind it.
Matthew Taylor, who owns multiple produce stands across the peninsula, said it's not the first time he's seen damage like this. He rushed to the scene after employees called to alert him.
"I headed right over here. When I got here, the wagon was out in the field. I was grateful that it had not blown into the highway. But it was torn up pretty good with the roof, a lot of the roof ripped off," Taylor said. "I just thought, hey, we've got to make a plan, get this done, get it cleaned up and get back together here."
Taylor estimates repairs to the stand will cost a couple thousand dollars, in addition to $500 to $1,000 in produce that was lost when it fell off the stand during the storm. He hopes to be back up and running by the weekend.
Further up the road in Cordova, residents saw extensive damage on Tappers Corner Road, where a fallen tree came down on telephone pole wires.
Glenda Andrew, who lives on the road, said the wind was very strong overnight, sending her to take shelter in her home.
"I was just very anxious, not knowing what was coming or what it was, you know, as to what do you do?" Andrew said. "I've never been through anything where it's actually damaged the house or anything...Walking around this morning, we noticed different things being damaged...looking up in the beech trees, you see the big limbs that were broke walking around. I looked at the oak tree thinking it was safe, but then I saw there's a limb up there that is twisted and broke. So just walking around there was more damage than what we saw last night."
Crews were at Andrew's property Wednesday clearing trees and limbs that had fallen throughout her yard.
Talbot County is urging residents to report property damage so officials can better assess the storm's overall impact.
