What does happen circa July 17 or 18 every year is that the Earth travels through the ancient debris trail of a comet. Rocks fall in seeming to travel from East to West. The first rocks have a very flat trajectory and actually appear to streak UP from the horizon.
All it takes is the first rock if it's properly aimed.
On the other hand, we do have an evening "peak" international departure window occuring in that area at the time of the event, so that changes the probabilities considerably.
The Peak of Perseids will happen in August this year. At the same time the EARLIEST Perseids will be visible in MID JULY. Check out the perseid drift map at this site: http://skytour.homestead.com/met2004.html
Astronimically and geograpically speaking, this story has a great deal of bearing on the probabilities of meteors "doing stuff": ".... remember one of these spectacular meteors on a Friday night in October 1992. A brilliant greenish meteor traveled slowly across the sky in front me and astonished fans at a Westover High School football game. The meteor was a primetime event all along the East Coast since many other Friday night football fans caught a “falling star,” too. The meteor would become a meteorite seconds later, so called because wasn’t consumed by our atmosphere, it fell to Earth. Actually, it fell on the back of a 1972 Chevrolet Nova in Peekskill, N.Y. It pretty much totaled the car, which was parked in a driveway. (SEE: http://www.fayettevillenc.com/special/backyard/98as2607.htm )