Heather Curtis
Gov. Larry Hogan walked through debris littered streets of Annapolis and Edgewater on Thursday looking at buildings torn apart by a tornado on Wednesday afternoon that formed as Tropical Depression Ida blew through.
“You really can’t appreciate how bad the damage is until you get here on the ground. I mean, everyone saw all the images on television all night, and it’s obviously devastating,” Hogan told reporters.
Nobody was killed or seriously injured, so Hogan said it could have been “much much worse.”
Thursday Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman and Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley filed an emergency declaration, which Hogan said his office needs to process as soon as it gets it. Hogan said that will allow the county and city to get money from FEMA to help pay for cleanup costs.
The first priority is getting everyone’s power back, according to Hogan, but then they need to repair people’s homes and businesses.
Hogan said one gentleman in Edgewater told him he was in his home when the tornado ripped through. The man said he heard a noise and walked to the back of his house. The windows were blown out of the front.
“He just missed it by inches,” Hogan said.
Pittman said he toured the worst-hit parts of Londontown on Wednesday night. He tweeted that four neighbors helped hammer tarps down on the home of an older gentleman whose singles had been stripped from the roof of his home.
“It was an impressive display of community and government getting things down,” Pittman wrote.
Anne Arundel County’s launching an online portal on Thursday for residents to report damage. Anyone who needs help may call the county’s office of emergency management at 410-222-0600.
Hogan said the Maryland Emergency Management Agency will continue to coordinate resources and information needs with local and state agencies.
Copyright 2021 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Gov. Larry Hogan via Twitter)
