Lots of cleaning up after strong Tuesday storms

Utility and other repair crews are starting their first full day of cleaning up after severe thunderstorms rumbled through southern New Jersey.

Atlantic City Electric says 13,304 homes and businesses are without power Wednesday, mainly in Cape May County. That's down from more than 34,000 customers on Tuesday.

Cape May County was briefly under a tornado warning on Tuesday while severe thunderstorms packing heavy rain and strong winds swept through Monmouth, Atlantic, Burlington, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean and Salem counties.

The storms downed trees and power lines.

FOX 29's Steve Keeley spent Wednesday morning in one of the hardest hit areas - Wildwood - and he's expecting lots of noise from chainsaws.

He found lots of damage. A house on 17th Street's rook was raised and walls came down.

A playground was destroyed and a roof landed on a swimming pool. Luckily, nobody was at either place at the time.

People hunkered in bathtubs. No injuries were reported.

To our south, thousands in Maryland are also without power.

Baltimore Gas and Electric reported more than 15,000 customers without power late Tuesday. Nearly 10,000 of those outages were in Howard County. Power had already been restored at thousands of customers that briefly lost power Tuesday.

The storms brought high winds, hail and heavy rain to Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C.

The Baltimore Sun reports the National Weather Service was sending a meteorologist to Howard County to inspect for signs of a tornado.

The newspaper reports that a chunk of marble fell from the molding on the roof of Baltimore City Hall and shattered panes in the atrium's glass ceiling. Officials suspect it was caused by a lightning strike. No one was hurt.