Some residents of Northern Baltimore County and Carroll County spent Sunday cleaning up after a quick, intense storm rocked their neighborhoods the previous night.

Multiple streets and driveways were covered in tree limbs, debris and downed wires, posing a challenge for neighbors planning to celebrate Easter. Hundreds were without power in the hours after the storm.

“There’s so much in the backyard, it’s gonna take me a log time to clean up,” said Alex Reichert, who owns Green Hill Landscaping and has lived in Parkton for most of his life. “All of these old pine trees behind me, they are at least 80 to 100 years old, and all the tops split off. There’s a whole tree at the end of the row that got uprooted completely and is laying on the ground.”

Just before 11 p.m. Saturday, Reichert said, he could hear how strong the wind was getting.

“My bedroom is right there at the top in the corner, and I looked out the window and saw everything just fall down. And trees were exploding. Limbs were flying,” Reichert said.

Reichert told WJZ he immediately took shelter in his basement and woke up the next morning to a tree hanging over his home.

“My equipment got smashed, and I don’t know if the insurance will cover it, but we’ll see,” Reichert said. “Yeah, this is not the holiday that everybody expected.”

Less than five minutes from Reichert’s home, there was more damage. A large tree left mangled in electric wires was toppled over Middletown Road, blocking traffic in both directions.

One man, who did not want to be identified, said he was driving south on Middletown Road and ran into the fallen tree just before 5 a.m. Sunday.

“No cones or no flares. I went right through and pretty much took off almost the whole top of the car. I was very lucky to be alive,” the man told WJZ.

Baltimore County firefighters were making their way around the fallen tree as they rushed to another emergency, a house fire in Freeland.

Don Lawrence said he woke up early Sunday morning and his power was out, so he went to turn on his backup generator. When the power went out again, he returned to the generator and saw flames spewing from it.

“Wouldn’t you know the perfect storm is, they’ve got trees down everywhere, so the fire department is having a hard time getting here, and I’m just watching this thing take off,” Lawrence said. “The wind is blowing — the flame, it’s like, it’s probably three or four feet, and it’s licking the bottom of the bumper of my nice van, and it started burning up rubber, and it just took off.”

Lawrence told WJZ his wife and dog made it out of the home.

“We’re safe. The dog is safe. Everybody is good,” Lawrence said.

“We’re lucky. Everybody’s alive and no one’s hurt. You know that’s really the main thing,” Reichert said.

WJZ is a media partner of The Baltimore Banner.