WEST YARMOUTH -- Yarmouth Fire crews look through the roof that blew off the Cape Sands Inn roof during a morning tornado that touched down on the structure. ▲ This radar map shows a tornado touched down in South Yarmouth ▲ Deep Hole Road is blocked by down branches in Harwich. ▲

Note: This story has been updated. Read the latest version here.

An intense storm that included a tornado pummeled Cape Cod on Tuesday, lashing the peninsula with powerful winds and rain.

The National Weather Service confirmed two tornadoes, rare in the region, touching down in South Yarmouth and Harwich as the storm passed through. Damage was heavy in those two towns as well as in Chatham and Dennis.

It's only the third time a tornado has officially hit Barnstable County, according to NWS records. Those occurred in 1968, 1977 and 2018.

The agency said they planned on sending a survey team to meet with emergency management officials on the Cape to assess the damage from the tornado.

Thousands are without power on the Cape after the storm caused downed tree limbs and power lines in many towns. See the full map of outages here.

"We have at last count just over 50,000 customers without power," said Reid Lamberty, a spokesman with Eversource, at around 2:30 p.m. "We are just now going out into the field to assess the damage while simultaneously doing repairs."

At 8:30 p.m., about 45,000 customers were without electricity on the Cape. Roughly 10,800 were without power in Dennis and about the same in Harwich. Extra crews were on the Cape after last nights storm and even more were headed to the peninsula to clean up Tuesday's damage, according to Lamberty.

Due to the widespread power outages, the Barnstable County Regional Emergency Planning Committee announced that the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School emergency shelter will open at 7 p.m. The high school is located at 210 Station Avenue in South Yarmouth.

Food and sleeping areas will be provided and pets are welcome, officials said.

There was significant damage to the Cape Sands Inn at 149 Rt. 28. in West Yarmouth, which included the roof being blowing off.

Bruce and Diane Martin had checked into their room at the Cape Sands Inn in Yarmouth just when the rain and wind started to pick up early Tuesday afternoon.

The couple made it up to their room, 250, on the second level of the inn and watched the storm from outside.

Watch video of interviews with people who witnessed the tornado at the Cape Sands Inn

Not five minutes after they had settled behind their window, the flagpole out in front of the inn's outdoor pool had bent sideways and a tornado lifted the roof opposite their room and carried it "in slow motion" into the backyard.

It was the "last thing" Bruce Martin had expected, he said, having arrived for the first of their three-day vacation in Cape Cod from Holyoke, Massachusetts. "We didn't even like the rain part, let alone the tornado."

The Martins will now be relocated to a different hotel as the area is evaluated for structural damage.

During a conference call with various state and local public safety agencies, Doug Foley, vice president of electric field operations for Eversource, said 100 tree crews and line crews have arrived on Cape from New Hampshire, Connecticut and Western Massachusetts to address damage to the electric system. Several had already been in the area since Monday evening, drawn by that first strong storm. About 49,000 Eversource customers were without power at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Another 23,000 services had their issues resolved via remote technology, Foley said.

In addition to tree and line crews, a couple Clean Harbor crews were being sent by Eversource to address any leaks from transformers. Eversource was also putting up a helicopter Tuesday afternoon to look at damage.

It will likely take 24 to 36 hours to assess the damage. "Customers should plan for a multi-day event," Foley said.

Repairing damaged areas may require shutting down areas where the power did not go out. Shutting off a particular area could even affect power in other communities, Foley said. Harwich was most severely affected with 93 percent of its customers without power.

Listen to police scanner communication in Yarmouth after a tornado swept through town. This is audio from 12:01 p.m. to 12:21 p.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 2019.

The fire department and the Department of Public Works are working with the police to get to every call, but the departments have been inundated.

Yarmouth Public Works Director Jeff Colby said the town had opened up its emergency operations center in the wake of the storm so that calls that came in could be routed through the centralized dispatching system to the right resources.

"There are lots of crews out there," Colby said. It was unusual to have the emergency operations center online at this time of year, since it is mostly used during winter storms.

"Based on the storm, we thought is was helpful to centralize," Colby said. At 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, four loaders supported by chainsaw crews were out clearing trees so roads are passable.

The crews were conferring with Eversource to make sure the areas had no live wires.

"We're still trying to get a handle on the damage," Colby said. South Yarmouth appeared to be the worst hit.

The Barnstable County Multi-Agency Coordination Center was activated to help the towns deal with the aftermath, he said.

Just before noon, a 90 mph wind gust was recorded at Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, NWS officials said.

Chatham police Chief Mark Pawlina was at Larry's PX to get lunch when he got the tornado alert on his phone.

He told everyone to back away from the windows and get ready to get under the tables, he said.

"We've got trees and power lines down at various locations," he said. At about 1:45 p.m. 5,558 people, about 65 percent of the town, was out of power.

Power lines were down in front of the Chatham Squire and other parts of Route 28 were blocked off, Pawlina said. There has not been any significant damage or serious injuries reported, he said.

Bill Snowden went to check on his sister Laurel once the storm quieted down and was stunned by what he saw near her home at 6 Antlers Avenue in South Yarmouth.

"There is a 100-foot swath where 50-foot pine trees were uprooted," Snowden said. Some were snapped off about 10 feet up and flattened; it looked like Oklahoma. How it didn't hit anybody is a miracle."

Not far away on Lower County Road in Dennis Port, Russell Olsen described the damage in his area as "massive destruction."

"It hit at 12: 15," Olsen said. "We were watching it on the news, and you could see it approaching Lower County." Nearby, Katherine Road was completely blocked by a massive tree, which was felled.

And in Harwich, Joy George was just wrapping up a session with a client at her yoga studio at 121 Chatham Road. "All of a sudden, the rain was going sideways; then it was going the other sideways," she said. "Then in the parking area I could see the circular movement of air. You could hear the sound of it: 'Whooo.'"

George's sister, from New York, was visiting their mother, who lives next door to the studio. "Her van was parked there, and it has a big, old tree on it," George said.

Chris Parker was sitting by the bay window of his first floor apartment at 50 Yarmouth Road in Hyannis when the storm uprooted a 100-foot maple and sent it crashing into the side of the house.

"I heard a crack, boom - it moved me right out of my chair," Parker said.

Live wires fell inches from the window and a large branch fell across the driveway of the two-storey house.

A woman on the second floor who did not want to give her name said she had just closed the windows and was mopping up rain water when she saw the tree headed right for her.

"I ran and I screamed," she said minutes after the storm blew through. "I'm still shaking."

Earlier, a tornado warning was issued for South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouth Port until 12:15 p.m. by the National Weather Service Boston Tuesday morning. The warning encompassed parts of West Barnstable, Mashpee, Centerville and New Seabury.

This came shortly after a tornado warning had been issued by the National Weather Service Boston, for parts of Barnstable and Dukes counties, including East Falmouth, Falmouth and Vineyard Haven until 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday.

In addition to the tornado warnings, the National Weather Service Boston said a wind gust of 69 miles per hour was reported in Vineyard Haven.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Twitter account recommended residents "take shelter in basement or lowest floor inside of building away from windows and exterior walls."

The Dennis special town meeting scheduled for Tuesday night has been postponed due to weather issues and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Staff writers Christine Legere, Ethan Genter, Edward Sutelan, Cindy McCormick, Beth Treffeisen and Tanner Stening contributed to this report.