Tree Comes Crashing Down On Cherry Hill Home While Family Eating Lunch In Dining Room
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS) -- Powerful storms on Wednesday left behind significant damage in some areas across our region. A cleanup effort is underway today while tens of thousands of customers remain without power.
Trees and wires came down in communities all across the region.
Download The New And Improved CBS Philly App!
In the Barclay Farms area of Cherry Hill, the entire subdivision has been without power since Wednesday afternoon.
Nina Galie says a tree came crashing down as she, her husband and four children ate lunch in their dining room, which is right where the tree fell.
"We immediately lost power after the tree came down. We were lucky the tree missed a good portion of the house but did hit part of the house. We lost some gutter and some roofing and some siding. But we were all safe so that's what we want to focus on," Galie said.
Around the corner, an even bigger tree narrowly missed three homes.
"We were shocked, to say the least. When we first came into the house and in the back, it just hits you right in the face," Joe Uzdzinski said.
These two households are among the 100,000 across New Jersey that lost power between the afternoon storm and a second evening storm that prompted a tornado warning. Burlington and Camden Counties saw the majority of the outages.
"We had about 8,000 911 calls come through last night," said Camden County spokesman Dan Keashen. "Flooding, trees down, power outages."
PHOTOS: SEVERE STORMS LEAVE BEHIND PATH OF DESTRUCTION
Keashen said despite the widespread damage, no one in the county was hurt or killed.
"We've got 63 homes that we're assessing right now for severe damage, mostly from trees," he said.
As PSE&G crews work around the clock to restore power, other workers loaded up cars with water and ice at three comfort stations to help families get through the sweltering day without air-conditioning.
"It was really hot last night and then we heard there's going to be more storms today, tonight and we're just looking at the other trees around us going, what's next?" said MaryBeth Salmonsen of Cherry Hill.
Keashen says Camden County is ready should more storms push through. They have about 60 workers on standby in addition to those working around the clock.
