Heavy rain in Washington region on Monday afternoon.

Joe Flood / Flickr

This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 4.

At least two tornadoes touched down in southeast Maryland Tuesday morning and hundreds of thousands of people lost power in Virginia as Tropical Storm Isaias lashed the Washington region with heavy rain and high winds.

The National Weather service reported at least two radar-confirmed tornadoes in Maryland, one in Vienna and the other in Girdletree. The tornado in Vienna was confirmed at 6:01 a.m. moving north at 35 mph. At 7:20 a.m., a tornado was located just north of Girdletree.

The storm left the immediate D.C. area by noon Tuesday, but left power outages, flooding and downed trees in its wake.

About 300,000 people lost power in Virginia, and 255,640 are still waiting to be reconnected. The outages are concentrated in southeastern Virginia, but 4,901 customers in Northern Virginia are also affected, according to Dominion Energy. Pepco reported about 1,313 customers lost power in D.C. and Montgomery County, and 1,142 are without power in Prince George’s County. Another 14,954 people are still without power in Anne Arundel County, 2,060 lost power in Calvert County, and 154 lost power in Howard County.

The National Weather Service issued a series of flash flood watches and predicted widespread rainfall totals of 3 to 6 inches. The region mostly escaped with 1 to 3 inches of rain around D.C., though parts of southern Maryland got up to 8 inches, according to the Washington Post.

Flooding was reported in Old Town Alexandria and on various local roads, including the George Washington Parkway, Rock Creek Parkway, and Crescent Road. Ellicott City, Maryland, which was devastated by flooding in 2016, has so far handled the influx of stormwater well with its improved infrastructure, according to reporting from WTOP’s Neal Augenstein.

There were also reports of flooding on Croom Road in Prince George’s County, Long Beach Drive in Calvert County, and Four Mile Run in Arlington. Anne Arundel County, Maryland, reported that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was closed as of 11 a.m. and reopened about an hour later.

Area traffic was already generally lighter in the area because of the pandemic. But many roadways were impassable because of flooding, fallen trees and accidents. 

In St. Mary’s County, Sheriff Tim Cameron tweeted, “Rapidly deteriorating conditions are making most roads in St Mary’s county impassable. Please stay off the roads.”

Pete Piringer, spokesperson for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, said crews were dispatched to more than a dozen collisions in the county, some involving injuries. He said roads were slick and wet.

A number of coronavirus testing sites in the region are closed because of the storm. D.C. announced that all of its COVID-19 testing sites would be closed Tuesday, as did Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Prince William counties. Arlington’s testing sites at 1429 N. Quincy Street and Arlington Mill Community Center are also closed.

D.C.’s meal and grocery distribution sites are closed as well.

Isaias touched down as a Category 1 hurricane in North Carolina at 11:10 p.m. Monday, and at least one person has died.

This story was updated with additional detail about the storm and its impact. Julie Strupp and Nathan Diller contributed reporting.

Filed Under: covid-19, dc, flooding, Maryland, virginia, weather,