Ocean City and surrounding communities spent the early part of this week cleaning up from a winter storm that brought high winds and several inches of snow and left thousands of homes without power.
Weather conditions began to deteriorate Sunday afternoon, when rain converted to snow and winds started to pick up along the coast. In Ocean City, the storm reached blizzard-level conditions by around 6:45 p.m., with sustained winds of 35 mph and wind gusts exceeding 50 mph by around 10 p.m.
“The biggest thing we’ve had to deal with is the winds,” Ocean City Public Works Deputy Director Woody Vickers said in an interview Monday. “The winds have been terrible, with gusts between 50-55 mph, possibly up to 60.”
Worcester County inland recorded significant snowfall, with some areas seeing 12 inches or more of accumulation in less than 24 hours. The heavy, wet snow, combined with the high winds, brought down several trees and power lines, resulting in hours-long outages for many residents.
In Ocean City, for example, city officials shared reports of scattered power outages, particularly in areas south of 40th Street. As a result, some traffic lights were not in operation for several hours as utilities crews worked to restore electricity.
“It was like the Fourth of July here last night,” Vickers said Monday. “Transformers were popping everywhere.”