COLUMBIA, Md. — The power of the kinds of storms that hit Columbia on Thursday is illuminated by the light of the next day.
The National Weather Service confirms it was an EF-1 tornado that carved a path of destruction through the Baltimore suburb Thursday.
RELATED: Tornado reportedly touched down in Columbia, according to National Weather Service
The evidence is all over from the top of an old oak tree twisted off like a soda bottle to how the wind could launch another tree onto a home with such force, it nearly split the second floor in half.
Lee Seifert lives across the street from that home on Wayover Way.
“The wind was blowing around in a circular fashion and I told her get the dog and go to the basement. At that point in time we could hear the kind of loud boom of the trees falling down, both one down the hill down there and one that fell into their house,” Seifert said.
In that house and in that room on the second floor, Peg Grygrowski was reading a book when the tree came crashing through the roof pinning her before her son was able to save her.
She didn't want to talk on camera but was perched on her driveway today to see the damage for herself from the outside. But it's the view from above that shows just how miraculous it was that she came out with only a bruise and some scratches.
There were no injuries nearby at Albert Martin's Columbia home either, despite a tree falling down so hard the root ball came up in one shot — and the tree sliced into the home like a hot knife through an ice cream cake.
“It's a clean cut through this side of the house, the other side it took a little bit more of the rafters and the roofing off,” Martin said.
Luckily no one was in that side of the house.
