MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Several families in Brookeville, Maryland are in cleanup mode after strong storms moved through Friday afternoon. Shortly before 12:30 p.m., Montgomery County was under a tornado warning. Damage ensued to several neighbors' homes.
While witnesses to the storm said they didn't physically see a tornado, several homes had significant damage after trees toppled on them. Several of the trees in the neighborhood appeared to have been snapped by the wind.
"As soon as I got here I started looking around and my heart dropped, "Ahmad Nassar said."I saw just trees lying across the whole backyard through the whole back house. I ran inside and thank God everybody was just safe and sound.”
Nassar said he had run out for a few minutes to pick up coffee for him and his wife when his phone started getting tornado warning alerts. That's when his wife called to tell him a tree had collapsed on the house.
“She said the house shook a little bit and the bang was so loud, we have two toddlers 3 and 4 years old, they were shook up, they were so scared,” Nassar said.
He said she, and their two toddlers, got the emergency weather alert notification and immediately took shelter in the basement.
“Thank God to whoever sent out these alerts and notifications. They saved our lives," Nassar said. "If you ever get any of those notifications, for future references please go ahead and hide, hide in your basement, take shelter because if there’s a small chance it might affect you or your home or loved ones. It saved us."
While his family is safe, a tree did fall through their ceiling and into their master bedroom. The tree also took out their back porch and parts of the home's back siding.
Their next-door neighbor had damage too, as well as a neighbor a street over.
"And thank God our neighbors are safe as well," Nassar said. "There’s a house across the street that had tree fall right in the middle of the house and they damaged their house a lot more than our house."
One of his neighbors said they saw debris flying, and as they tried to hunker down a tree collapsed onto their home.
“I was going to get my mom is when the tree basically crashed into her room and she was just at the door frame as she was getting out the whole roof came down,” Kenneth Elias-Solis said.
"Thank God the most important things are safe," Nassar said. "All of this can be replaced. It’s just going to take a lot of time, a lot of headaches. I can’t complain. Thank God we survived it. That’s all that matters."