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Mother rushes children into Edgewater pizza place to shelter from tornado

"We drove like the fast and furious driver, off to the side of the road, into Ledo's Pizza," explained Laura Martien.

EDGEWATER, Md. — A mother of two took shelter in an Edgewater pizza place after spotting a tornado in the distance Wednesday afternoon.

Laura Martien was driving down Maryland Route 2 when she saw something in the distance that confused her. 

"My younger son said I think those are just birds and when I realized, birds don’t fly around in circles, and up and down with lightning strikes," explained Martien. "This was indeed the tornado we had been warned about."

Martien's older son Craig began to realize the danger his family was in shortly after.

"When the lightning strike happened and we actually saw the pieces of debris get a lot closer and the tornado swirls around," said Craig. "It was pretty scary."

Martien went into what she described as "mom mode" and worked to get her children to shelter.

"We drove like the fast and furious driver, off to the side of the road, into Ledo's Pizza," explained Martien.

Once inside, she was able to capture video of the tornado as it twisted around in Edgewater. The mother couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"[There was] Almost a sense of disbelief. I’ve seen tornados on twister movies and wizard of oz, so there’s this kind of disconnect for me," said Martien. 

The tornado crossed Maryland Route 2 and just missed Lee Airport, where vulnerable small airplanes were parked outside the hanger. 

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