“I’ve never seen anything like it in the 33 years I’ve been working here, through hurricanes and different storms,” said Brian Townsend, assistant director of Greenbelt Public Works, echoing the sentiments of many Greenbelters regarding the storm that slammed into Greenbelt just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 12. Utility poles were broken and wires came down at Lastner Lane, Hedgewood, at the corner of Research and Hillside and near the Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department. Greenbelt Police noted the downed power lines and dark traffic lights at various intersections but received no reports of serious injuries or deaths. Only one minor injury was called in, caused by a fallen tree.
An estimated 150 trees around Greenbelt were seriously damaged, including many of the city’s large mature oaks. According to Townsend, trees normally reinforce their wood as they bend, twist and turn, but the extraordinary winds of this storm snapped the tops off trees and fractured many beyond their stress point. Cranes were brought in over the weekend to clean up dangerous treefalls. Townsend reports that the cleanup job for Public Works will take three to four weeks to complete. The trail around Greenbelt Lake is now completely open.
Dan Gillotte, general manager of Greenbelt Co-op, reported losses in their refrigerated sections including dairy, meat, seafood, cheese and ice cream. “Even though it’s insured there will still be losses,” Gillotte said. “Once you get past that four-hour mark there’s not much you can do,” noting that Co-op’s outage lasted seven hours, with power returning around 1 a.m. Both the Co-op and the New Deal Café were open first thing the next day, offering customers a cool place to sit and recharge their devices. Co-op placed big orders to replenish their inventory and were more or less back in business by Friday, Gillotte reported.
Franklin Park faced damage to buildings that displaced residents, as well as damage to trees around the grounds.
Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI) sent out an electronic newsletter detailing the damage. During the brief but intense storm, they said, “85-year-old trees were broken into thirds, root balls the size of vans were uprooted and trees blocked Parkway and Crescent Road,” GHI Maintenance sprang into action, cutting up a large downed tree near Parkway. Damage to GHI homes, they said, included “large trees leaning on each other, sheds cut in half, twisted gutters, mangled fences, a crushed deck, and … 800-pound slabs of concrete yanked out of the ground.” Cranes will be required to remove some fallen trees.
Reports from the Forest Preserve committee indicate that the trees in the forest protected each other from the strong winds.
According to the Washington Post and Capital Weather Gang, the storm that went through was classified as a “bow echo,” named because of its shape on radar, a type of storm that can produce fierce downbursts and straight-line winds of 60 to 80, or even up to 100 miles per hour. The destructive derecho that swept through Greenbelt on June 29, 2012, was also a bow echo storm.