destruction. work is well underway clearing away downed trees after a storm parking winds of 80 miles an hour struck in the wii morning hours of wednesday. >> there was hail hitting the house that's what i assumed it was. i got up to see if was raining. no sooner did i pull back the curtains to lookout the window the tree was coming right at the window. >> reporter: isolated damage paled in comparison to the impact of dutch village apartments where the wind ripped away roofs forcing families from their homes. >> vibration and glass busting. it broke ply whole window. >> it went through what time 2:00 a.m. >> reporter: governor martin o'malley and stephanie rawlins- blake got a firsthand look at

the damage inside the complex. those same winds that ripped portions of the apartments roofs apart hurdleed the debris through the air causing further damage. >> a 2 by 34 stuck in the side of the building. >> reporter: the storm created gas leaks in the complex forcing evacuation. but fortunately the victims escaped with relatively minor injuries. >> the devastation that we've seen, you know, you expect to see out in the midwest somewhere. you don't expect to see that right here in baltimore city. we are tremendously blessed that we're not here talking about significant loss of life with what we were wee just witnessed today. >> reporter: earlier today when the mayor and governor were taking the tour of the apartment complexes so seriously damaged we spoke with with someone from the meteorologist service. it's a little premature to determine whether or not this was the actual work of a

tornado. jeff hager abc 2 news. >> all right, thanks a lot, jeff. with the storm damage came evacuations hundreds of people relocated to temporary shelters in baltimore city. cherie johnson talks to folks waiting it out. >> reporter: downed trees, power lines and debris lit erred a portion of northeast baltimore after severe storms ripped through the area. dutch village apartments and townhomes received the worst of the damage. it was something many people like bernadette had never seen. the roof on her building was ripped off the hinges. >> the ceiling started falling in every room and the doors started coming off the hinges and windows busted out. basically that was it. you couldn't come down the steps because everything in the hallways was coming to you. you had a lot of debris on the ground. >> reporter: the damage was so severe firefighters evacuated the area to keep people safe. they came here to the mount pleasant ice rink for temporary

shelter until city agencies could figure out what to do. andrea had been waiting patiently trying to figure out where to go since her home was damaged in the storm. the roof blew off and the windows were blown out. her main goal now is to keep her son safe. >> we evacuate so i couldn't send him to school today. we're out here trying to see what's going on. >> reporter: 120 people piled into the temporary shelter. the mayor's office of emergency management teamed up with the american red cross to meet their needs. but the feeling of uncertainty has many at a loss. >> it's like a death situation. you never thought a hurricane like that would hit baltimore like that. this is one day i would never ever forget because it was scary. it is bad. it was really bad. >> i'm still nervous because that ceiling could have came in on me, and the glass shattered.

i've never been through that before, for now many people in this northeast baltimore community don't know what the next step is. they are just thankful to see another day. cherie johnson abc2 news. the red cross of central maryland is stepping him to help. they are asking for your help. they are asking each person $10 to fund aid. to donate text the word react to 50555 or you can give them a call at the number on your screen (410)624-2000. dozens and dozens of homes were severely damaged. roosevelt leftwich joins us live from parkville. devastating pictures. >> reporter: it's absolutely incredible. this is a little piece of tree right. this little piece of tree came from that big tree that went

right through the roof of that house. take a look at some of the pictures. the damage was wide spread varied from a few shingles off a roof to a large tree into the middle of a house. two to three square area around joppa road was affected by the winds and rains. it started at 1:30 in the morning. the wind started how long the houses shook and then things started falling. >> i was downstairs, you hear the thing about the freight train and that was pretty accurate. >> really. >> i didn't realize a tree had come down even though it scraped the back of the house. it sounded like a huge wind and it was 10 seconds. >> reporter: i would like to know who that guy's insurance company is when we were out here earlier they had the tree

removed and now they are putting the roof back on. they hope to have the roof back on at least through the night. the inside work will take a while. they have been working pretty fast. right now power crews are scattered throughout this area trying to restore power. more than a hundred homes in this area were without power that left a lot of people without power. but hopefully they get a lot of that restored coming up a little later as the night goes on. we'll have more coming up at 5:30. roosevelt leftwich abc2 news. thanks rosie. about 12,000 homes lost power in anne arundel county last  night. bge had trucks out to make the repairs today. most of the homes have had their power restored. the fire department responded to 18 calls since midnight to handle downed power lines and trees falling into homes, and some neighbors awoke to a lot of damage. >> trees uprooted, around the beach park. three trees entirely pushed over from the ground. taken from the ground by the root and knocked over. >> take a look at this.

we want to show you damage in the nation's capitol. downed trees and wires blocked off some of the roads around washington and many customers there also left without power. new jersey saw its share of damage downed trees and power lines sparked a fire. the lines caught fire apparently fueled by gas shooting up a ball of flames. a dozen trees were downed. 5,000 customers lost power in the northern and central part of the state. another 16,000 were in the dark in south jersey. storm system did major damage to this mall in philadelphia. winds up to 45 miles per hour knocked out walls and windows and ripped the roof off of at least one building at the mall. trees were down at least 17,000 people without power. the good news is no one was hurt. that is the best news of all, kelly, that no one was hurt. those rather rough storms we had in last night and the

northeast side of town. widespread thunderstorms late last night. but only a few packed a severe punch. maryland powerful radar very busy. we're the opposite crystal clear. but it has been a windy day. this is 1:30 a.m. late last night. itches actually still here in the storm center, and we were seeing a pretty nasty line we had severe thunderstorm warnings we never did get a tornado warning what we did see was that storm squall line approaching out of the south and damaging straight line winds. you can get downburst winds with that weather set up. the end result you can check it out at abc2news.com but to me this was one of the most impressive storm photos. windy still tonight but we have lost our wind advisory, and the rest of the evening we will look for breezy weather, but not powerhouse winds. down through the 50s we go

chilly overnight toward daybreak tomorrow. we'll talk about how things shape up for the weekend coming up. remember during severe weather abc2 news and abc2news.com are your best places for constant i dates. let to abc2news.com/weather to track the storms as they move through your neighborhood and get the very latest forecast. we would also like to see your pictures from this damaging storm. head to our facebook fan page and up load them right there. in other news tonight baltimore city's teachers union criminal contract vote is today. members rejected the original contract last month after negotiations between union and school officials resume. the union unveiled a second plan that added details teachers have requested. under the new contract teachers would no longer be paid based on step increases which are automatic raises based on the tenure of the number of degrees required. teachers can vote up until 6:00. the fda top doc entered a

ban on energy drinks. caffeine is an unsafe food additive. the fda is concerned it can mask some of the so-called sensory accuse that drinkers rely on to determine how intoxicated they are. the maker of "four loko" will remove caffeine from its drinks. the government can now seize energy drinks with caffeine and alcohol with companies continue to make them. this afternoon maryland comptroller and the maryland beverage industry announced a voluntary ban on the sale of caffeinated alcoholic drinks. he thanked the maryland state license beverage association. associations said the volunteer ban was the most responsible course of action. we have a progress report tonight on the fight against heart disease. a new study says a blood test

can detect a heart problem in its early stages. we're going to have more on this lifesaving procedure coming up. according to jimmy kimmel it's national unfriend day how he's trying to bring back the true meaning of friendship. and fighting the crowds to get the best holiday deals. we're getting ready for the black friday madness coming up. [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable,

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. in tonight's health alert there is progress to report in the fight against health disease. dr. timothy johnson tells us about a blood test that could save lives. >> reporter: 5 million americans suffer from heart failure it occurs when the heart is too weak to pump bloody official throughout the body and it contracts to

300,000 deaths a year in the u. s. though heart failure okay can you remember without warning a new study from the university of maryland school of medicine reports a possible advance in diagnosis. over 4,000 people above average 65 had their blood tested for a biomarker to identify those at higher risk for heart failure. those who had the highest levels of the biomarker had 2.5 times greater risk of heart failure and three times greater risk of heart failure than those who had no detectable level of the biomarker. when levels of the biomarker went up or down in the blood so did the risk of heart failure and death. the researchers concluded that this biomarker is significantly associated with heart failure and cardiovascular death. with this medical minute i'm dr. timothy johnson. remember five years ago

when no one was on facebook and you didn't know what the guy you took high school biology with was having for lunch? let's go back to that. not unfriend day. november 17th. >> jimmy kimmel wants to cut the friend fat. whether it's your ex- boyfriend's creepy uncle or that girl you did an article with at towson. it's national unfriend day in an effort to pare down the excess friend age and make social networking a little more anti-social. friend age a word? >> i don't know. i tell you what, i want you to have the facebook and like. you're way ahead of me in the

race kelly. maybe i'm more of a twitter guy or something. >> i can't see. >> we had quite the round of storms last night. we're talking nasty little cluster of storms northeast. parksville getting the worse of that in the parkville area. we saw the storms coming in at 11:30. we were talking about this coming out of virginia. how it unfolds into the overnight you never quite know. >> it was real ugly. we were without power most of the night. >> there was damage in the city. let's take a look outside just the opposite tonight kelly. a crystal clear weather scenario. great looking night actually. we have sunset but we still have name dusk lighting. winds west at 13 and barometer at 29.93 on the rise. let's take a look. typically today we would see sunset 4:51. that's what we saw. typically temperature wise mid

50s. a little warmer than that today. most spots low 60s. gusty winds all kn those typical things you see behind these large storm systems the winds whipping in. we take you out to park high definition weather net camera. needs to clean the lens a little bit there. sorry for that. but we do see the skies nice and clear tonight after cloudy start and obviously a stormy overnight last night. towson mixture of clouds and sun all day. breezy and powerful winds actually. saw some wind gusts up to 40. chesapeake beach. i want to show you some wind gusts. westminster gusting to 45. we gusted to 40 in bowie 43 arnold. windy, windy day. that can bring down obviously branches and trees in places as well along with the wind gusts we saw over 50 and some of the thunderstorms last night had a tremendous amount of wind in the last 24 hours across the state. skies clear now radar crystal clear. mid 50s in baltimore, easton,

dover chillier air marching in. oakland already down to 37. going to be a chilly night. current winds around 15 or so but we've seen much higher gusts than that. take a look at some of the wind gusts, gusting to 26 in the last hour. the earlier map through the day we're still gusting to 25 out there. so it is a windy weather scenario. satellite radar trend. very, very clear after big storms of last night. there's not much to tell you about tonight. that's a nice change we're glad to say that. and as we zoom out a little bit here, you can kind of see there is a 12-hour loop. you can see the last remnants of that storm whipping their way off the atlantic seaboard, but that's all in the wake of of course putting some very damaging winds down across parts of central maryland and the baltimore area. warm air is continuing to kind of swirl in a little bit through the overnight. the colder air will march in behind this thing as we go overnight into the day tomorrow. future forecast skies clear tonight but through the day tomorrow we will begin to cloud up and i expect to see murky

conditions in the afternoon, mostly cloudy. we could even see some patchy drizzle in western maryland toward frostburg likely to see a little bit of light snow shower activity. 38 clear and chilly. tomorrow 55 with clouds on the increase and tomorrow night much chillier 33, breezy weather as well. 7-day forecast going forward here another breezy one into the day tomorrow. but you know, it had been drier and much quieter as we go into the weekend. kelly. >> thanks, wyatt. giant is cutting back on the number of days salvation bell ringers can ask for donations outside its stores. last year they were out 35 days in november and december up to 10 hours a day. giant's new policy limits the people ringing to less than a third of that time. salvation army will have four hours a day over 12 days this year. giant spokesman says the policy

allows better access to other nonprofits. instead of getting service with a smile a burger king customer got a insult that included a four letter word. more on this customer's profanity laced receipt. why everyone is talking about last night's decision on dancing with the stars. that's going to go right in your glove. ohhh.

oh. see that? great job. ok, now let's get ready for the ball... here it comes... here you go. good catch. perfect! alright now for the best part. let's see your pour. ohhh...let's get those in the bowl. these are way too good to waste, right? oh, yea. let's go for it... around the bowl and... [ male announcer ] share what you love... with who you love. mmmmm. kellogg's frosted flakes®... they're g-r-r-reat!™ good catch, dad. [ laughs ]

. thee some trade in their days to fight off the crowds searching for the best holiday deals out there, black friday. if you need a little help

getting ready for rowdy crowds charlie has some tips in today's take five. >> reporter: it's a day that's part scavenger hunt part rock concert. we're talking about black friday, the day after thanksgiving where retailers roll out the holiday red carpet to big deals and big savings. >> every year it gets bigger and bigger. people come out early. >> reporter: a manager at best buy suggests that above all else shoppers should have a game plan for stops sales and strategy. >> you start at 5:00 they are still coming in 6:00 in the morning. that's the craziest thing i've seen coming through nonstop line of people. >> reporter: crazy sure but be courteous to fellow shoppers and retailers helping out. >> be calm. it's not a big factor going into coming through. i know there are some things limited quantities but again when plan a goes awry plan b is there to get it taken care of. >> reporter: what were once a

solo or budding shopping day has grown into a family affair. sometimes those families are staying outdoors on what could prove to be a cold night. >> dress warm. you know, you're going to be out there in line for a while. we've had people that come through and are a little cranky because they are cold. >> reporter: black friday fanatics bouncing from big boxes local malls and shopping centers. one of the most important tips may be the one you consider the least. >> where to park. two great options valet. if you prefer to park yourself it's easy if you go up to the top of our garages and then work your way down. >> reporter: so much walking, walking and walking, what you wear may ultimately have the biggest impact on your holiday spirit. >> i wear comfortable shoes. i've seen individuals with high- heels on and i'm wondering how long they make it through the day. definitely comfortable shoes,

sneakers. >> for you tech savvy shoppers jessica boom with the towson town center said they will be updating daily and hourly sales and shopper traffic on facebook and twitter. a 6-year-old girl has really did aim. what she bagged on her first hunting trip. plus our live coverage continues of the damage left behind from last night's storm. that's coming your way at 5:30.

. trees into houses roofs heavily damaged and power out. last night's storms cut a path it destruction. roosevelt leftwich joins us live from parkville with more. what a nasty mess left behind rosie. >> reporter: it was something kelly. in fact this tree rate here was 50 feet tall but it fell fr