Stormy weather blew into Rhode Island twice yesterday, with cascading quarter-sized hail and flash-flooding, wind gusts that tore down trees and power lines and severe lightning strikes that critically injured a man and struck several houses. By evening, thousands of Rhode Islanders, from Chopmist to Warren, were still without electricity.

The storms were brief, lasting about 20 or 30 minutes, but they attracted attention as they moved through the region in early afternoon and later in the day.

The black thunder clouds roiled overhead in Rhode Island beginning around 12:30 p.m., as the National Weather Service issued warnings for people to take cover from the impending hail and lightning. Amateur radio operators in North Kingstown were already reporting hail between 1 and 1 3/4 inches in size.

The weather service’s warning was too late for a 42-year-old man who was struck by lightning as he was fishing off the rocks near Roger Williams University, in Bristol. Rescuing him was tricky.

As rain pelted down and lightning flashed overhead, about 20 volunteer firefighters worked their way down the shore to the unconscious man, who had collapsed and become stuck in the rocks, said Bristol Fire Chief Robert J. Martin. They lifted him into a Stokes basket and carefully carried him off the rain-slicked rocks, he said.

The ambulance couldn’t reach the area, so one of the volunteer firefighters drove his pickup truck to the shoreline, Martin said, and firefighters loaded the man and basket into the back of the truck. The firefighters performed CPR on the man — whose identity was unavailable last night — as they rushed him to Rhode Island Hospital’s trauma care unit, Martin said. He estimated that the rescue took about 10 minutes.

Hail pelted down in East Providence, Pawtucket, Little Compton and Seekonk, where lightning struck a house and set it on fire early in the afternoon. During the afternoon rush hour, another wave of thunderstorms moved through the region, pelting Warwick and West Warwick with hail.

The weather seemed to save the worst for Pawtucket. Hail crushed summer gardens, cracked windshields and buckled the roof of a bank in that city. The hail also clogged the storm drains so quickly that the downpours flooded the streets.

“It was quite the storm. We got hit pretty hard,” said Pawtucket EMA director Robert Howe.

As the storm barreled into Pawtucket and the hail pelted down, Howe opened the emergency operations center and called the city’s police chief, fire chief, the mayor’s office and the director of public works.

The sudden flooding lifted vehicles on some roadways, sending a few careening into each other. The police closed several roads temporarily because of the flooding, he said. East Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue and Armistice Boulevard were particularly flooded.

The surge of water from a storm drain was powerful enough to cause buckling on part of Armistice Boulevard, in the area of the Department of Public Works building, near the George R. Bennet Industrial Highway. Mayor James Doyle said he expected the asphalt would need to be replaced.

Lightning struck the chimney of a house on Riverview Avenue, but didn’t cause a fire, Howe said. The Fire Department was busy with numerous alarms that were triggered by the severe weather, he said, but no one was injured.

The city Department of Public Works brought out its plows and dump trucks to clean up the hail, and public works employees stayed on past the end of their shift to clean out storm drains and pump out the flooded areas, Howe said.

Crews from National Grid were working to restore power to thousands of customers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In Providence, 2,700 customers were without power in the afternoon. By evening, 2,500 customers in Somerset were still without power, along with 2,700 in Chopmist, 600 in North Kingstown, 200 in Lincoln, 100 in Warren and 100 in Providence, according to a National Grid spokeswoman.

The CVS Caremark Charity Classic, held at the Rhode Island Country Club, in Barrington, was delayed by almost four hours by the violent thunderstorms.

At the time of the delay, the 10 two-player teams had all completed at least 10 holes and had at least 5 holes to play. Because the course became so wet, it was decided to make it a 28, rather than 36-hole, competition. After 28 holes, the teams of Bubba Villegas-Camilo Watson, Paul Goydos-Tim Herron, Billy Andrade-Davis Love and Rocco Mediate-Brandt Snedeker were all at 15-under-par.

Watson and Villegas birdied all three holes of a four-team playoff to win the match — and $150,000 each.

With reports from staff writer John Castellucci and sportswriter Paul Kenyon.

mmckinne@projo.com