A giant tree crashed in front of a home in Silver Spring. No one was injured. (Photo: TBD Staff)

People in Montgomery County are reeling from this morning’s storm, as countless trees are down and 74,000 are left in the dark.

“This is going to be a multiple day event. We lost 100,000 [total],” Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey says. “We’ve got some substation damage and some main feeder lines out.”

Hainey says other utility companies are determining how many crews they can offer to help in the effort, and Pepco has dispatched all of their crews and contractors.

According to Pepco’s StormCenter map, the hardest hit by power outages areas in Montgomery County are in Silver Spring, Wheaton, White Oak and Colesville. But Gaithersburg saw a lot of fallen trees, including one that fell into an apartment building and left 10 people injured.

Trees also fell along the Piney Branch corridor, and there were numerous water rescues from vehicles trapped in high water after flash flooding, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services.

Route 29 is a mess - lights are out along Colesville Road, including at Sligo Creek Parkway, where there is a large downed tree by the side of the road.  Check back for road and Metro updates.

Residents in the Summit Hills apartment complex at the intersection of 16th Street and East-West Highway are without power. Local coffee shops are filled with people who, rather than brave a messy commute into the office, are trying to get work done from a place with electricity.

In the Woodside neighborhood in Silver Spring, Deborah Laufer said goodbye to her husband as he went out the front door this morning, about 10 minutes before a giant tree crashed onto the front of their house.

Miraculously, the tree didn’t break any windows. A few inches made the difference.

“You don’t know what you’re supposed to do,” she says. “Do you call the homeowners insurance company or do you remove it so you can live?”

Her power didn’t go out like it did for hundreds of other nearby homes.

“When you have electricity and it’s bright outside, you feel OK. It’s when the electricity is out that you feel like you have no hope,” she says.

A Pepco crew worked on repairing a downed line around the corner from Laufer’s home, but the workers said they couldn’t fix it until a tree removal company came first. The downed tree was to blame for outages along 2nd Avenue, including The American office building at 1320 Fenwick Lane where Janelle Cauthen waited outside along her fellow coworkers.

Cauthen is the Silver Spring Site Director for Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers and says she told many of her staff to go back home. Some were still stuck in traffic at 10 a.m.

We’ll be out and about all day, but please send us photos and other tips.