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Pepco power lines were heavily damaged Sunday by fallen trees and strong winds, but trees and lines were not all that toppled.

An 80-foot-tall, 150-ton crane at the county's Shady Grove Solid Waste Transfer Station and Recycling Center in Derwood was knocked over by strong winds Sunday, site manager Peter Karasik said.

The twisted metal remains of the machinery were blocked off by red tape Monday, and orange cones blocked the edge of the parking lot where the crane came to rest.

"It needs to be completely replaced," Karasik said. "We may be able to salvage some parts, but it's completely twisted." He said the crane has been at the site for 15 years without an incident. "We've had powerful summer thunderstorms before and nothing."

The crane, one of two at the site, was used to move containers full of burnable waste from trucks at the station to trains that carry the trash to a waste-to-energy power plant in Dickerson. Karasik said operations in Derwood might slow down until a replacement can be purchased or rented.

No one was injured when the crane fell, but the center was evacuated and closed down soon after, Karasik said.

Car away from home

Karen Craft and her husband Bill didn't mind the long wait at the Shell station off Shady Grove Road near Interstate 270 on Monday afternoon. They really needed gas.

The Bethesda couple stopped at one station and passed by several darkened ones on their way to Home Depot in Gaithersburg before they came across an operating station.

"I was really surprised that we needed to hunt for gas," Karen Craft said, as her husband filled the car's tank. "Here it was really dangerous too because people were hanging out onto Shady Grove Road."

Craft said her electricity still was off at 4:30 p.m. Monday, making gasoline all the more critical. "The car's been home away from home," she said.

After the storm, the Crafts' car became the charging station for the family's cell phones, BlackBerries and a PlayStation Portable. Plus, they hopped in every now and again for a shot of air conditioning.

"So it's really important for our car to run," Karen said.

The electricity at the gas station went during the storm, but was restored by 11 a.m. Monday, according to the owner.

Tree damage

Russell Bradshaw stood in his yard in the 16000 block of Citizens Place in Darnestown on Monday and recalled when each of the massive trees around his home were planted.

He bought the 10 white firs as seedlings 20 years ago for 10 cents each. He planted the giant willow about the same time as the firs.

The only one of his trees damaged by Sunday's storm was a massive maple that grows near his house.

"I heard and saw limbs from the maple tree snap off," said Bradshaw, 65. "The storm was in and out in a flash. I've never seen anything like it before."

Fighting off bugs while he loaded the back of his pickup truck with tree branches and leaves, Bradshaw said he was glad the tree didn't fall on his house. The maple still stands in his yard, but for how long Bradshaw doesn't know, he said.

"It's an old tree. It didn't damage my house but it did break one of the planks in my fence. I'm just counting my blessings."

A downed electrical wire caused a tree to catch fire about 5 p.m. Sunday in the 18900 block of Beallsville Road in Poolesville, according to Capt. Oscar Garcia, a county Fire and Rescue Service spokesman.

First responders called Pepco to turn off the power source because electrical currents can travel through water and firefighters were in danger of being electrocuted if they used a hose on the blaze, Garcia said.

The fire extinguished itself, Garcia said, and no injuries or other damage was reported.

Staff writer Meghan Tierney contributed to this report