Footage circulated on Friday of a destructive “tornadic waterspout” hitting a Maryland island, part of a line of storms that threw tens of thousands of residents out of power and sent emergency crews scrambling to address the crisis.
The twister—not a proper waterspout but a genuine tornado forming over the water—touched down in the Chesapeake Bay near Maryland’s Smith Island and proceeded to wreck numerous houses there.
Footage showed strong winds tearing apart homes and sending debris flying over the area.
Ouch. Very sorry to hear this. I lived near there for a while in the 90s — Caroline County to the north and inland from Smith Island.
You can’t get to Smith Island except by boat: no bridges, no airstrip. Rebuilding’s gonna be tough, but the people there are also tough and they’ll get it done.
It should go without saying that waterspouts and tornadoes are synonymous except in where they form. Once a waterspout touches land it is a tornado. Waterspouts can be just as intense as a tornado. Most are not.
I’ve never been on Smith Island, but I have enjoyed on many occasions the delicious Smith Island cakes that are baked there and shipped all around Maryland and Virginia. I hope those people can recover from this quickly.
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I discovered the waterspout … and the tornado …
A few miles too far North.
Eons ago, I used to crew a sailboat out of Annapolis and happened upon Smith Island more than once in our travels…. only time I’ve witnessed waterspouts was even before my Annapolis adventures, in the Mediterranean just north of Naples. The tough folks of Smith Island will rebuild. God bless them.
FJB