Sept. 3 update:
The National Weather Service confirmed seven tornadoes touched down from Ida in all, six of which in the greater Philadelphia region. The seventh took place in Princeton, New Jersey.
The original story is as follows:
MULLICA HILL, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — The National Weather Service said Thursday that at least six confirmed tornadoes were among several suspected ones observed in the area Wednesday evening, causing widespread damage around the greater Philadelphia region and South Jersey.
Three people died in Montgomery County after the storms struck, along with a Montgomery County resident who died in Bucks County.
A tornado that destroyed and damaged homes in Mullica Hill, New Jersey was declared an EF-3 tornado Thursday. The National Weather Service said that it traveled 12.6 miles, and at its peak, was 400 yards wide.
Only four previous tornadoes in New Jersey have ever reached an EF-3 stage. The state has never seen an EF-4 tornado.
It starte in Harrisonville, damaging trees before going northeast into Cedar Grove and the Willow Oaks subdivision, where it heavily damaged numerous homes.
It then traveled to Bridgeton Pike, where it destroyed barns and storage facilities, and it reached its 400-yard width.
The tornado then got to Mullica Hill, where it destroyed one home and severely damaged others. It went northeast, toppling two barn grain silos and deforested a wooded area on Breakneck Road.
After mostly destroying a greenhouse, house roofs and many trees, it lifted in Deptford.
Officials declared that a tornado that hit Montgomery County Wednesday night was an EF-2, with winds as high as 130 miles per hour. It went between Fort Washington/Upper Dublin Township and Horsham Township.
Another confirmed tornado traveled between Edgewater Park in Burlington County, New Jersey to Bristol, Bucks County. It was declared an EF-1 tornado as well, with maximum wind speeds of 90 miles per hour.
A second tornado in Bucks County was confirmed in Buckingham Township, as well, with wind speeds as high as 100 miles per hour. A third tornado in the county was also declared in Upper Makefield Township as an EF-1, with 90 mile per hour maximum wind speeds.
Another tornado was confirmed in Oxford, Chester County. The National Weather Service had yet to confirm the strength of that tornado.
In addition, a tornado was declared to have reached Princeton, New Jersey.
National Weather Service teams are working in seven other areas in the Delaware Valley to assess whether tornadoes struck those locations.
Severe thunderstorm, flash flood and tornado warnings simultaneously bombarded the area as Tropical Depression Ida passed through.
Sixteen tornado warnings were issued within a span of a few hours, and several were actually observed. Mullica Hill and Mantua, in Gloucester County, received the brunt of tornado damage.
Daniel North heard the tornado warning alert and didn’t think much of it — until an apparent twister appeared outside his window.
“There was a lot of rain and thunder and then it started to get quiet and I started to hear sort of a rumbling roar, which is what I always heard was what tornadoes sounded like," he said.
"I poked my head out the window, and that’s when I noticed the debris flying around above me. And it started to get louder and that’s when I realized there was a tornado right behind our house, basically.”
North's house sustained some roof damage, as did his neighbor’s. Other houses were completely decimated. One 3,200-square-foot home was basically reduced to a wall and a pile of wood.
Downed trees and power lines kept Gianna DelPiano from getting to her home on Cedar Road.
“I came from Philly and it actually wasn’t bad there," she said. "But then as soon as I got to Mullica Hill, all the trees were down. I’ve tried five different ways to get to the middle of this road and I can’t get there. It’s terrible.”
Tim Steuber stayed with a neighbor overnight because one side of his house was ripped apart. His mattress was strewn about in the driveway.
He huddled in the basement with his wife when the apparent tornado passed through. It was over in two or three minutes.
“Missing a wall in the master bedroom. It’s gone,” said Steuber. “Windows upstairs pretty much all broken out, shattered.”
Crews responded to the scene with chainsaws to clear the downed trees blocking the road. Fire crews are going door to door to clear the area. Green X’s are spray-painted on the front of houses along Marvin and Josephine lanes, signifying that firefighters cleared the house and nobody was left inside.
No injuries have been reported in Mullica Hill, though several people have died in the aftermath of Ida across the rest of the region.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency in the wake of the storms.
Related
"We will use every resource at our disposal to ensure the safety of New Jerseyans," the governor tweeted. "Stay off the roads, stay home, and stay safe."
“I promise that we will stay with everybody, and it won’t be a short road,” he said at the scene Thursday morning. “We will stay with them on that road to recovery.”
Murphy also said he is submitting a major disaster declaration to the president for his approval.
Surveying the aftermath
National Weather Service teams are surveying the damage and the aftermath of the storm to officially determine if a tornado — or likely, tornadoes — touched down across the region.
Dr. David A. Robinson, a state climatologist and Rutgers University geography professor, said NWS officials must examine whether the weather pattern was caused by a downburst or tornado.
“A downburst is just air that pounds down to the surface, and most of the damage will go off in one direction — all the trees and damage that’s blown. A tornado, however, you will find a circular pattern to the destruction — trees going down in a variety of ways,” he explained.
“A downburst can be just as devastating as a weak tornado, but when you ramp up your tornadoes to a stronger level, they will beat out most any downburst.”
Related
So far this year, 11 tornadoes touched down in New Jersey — the second-most on record.
There have only been four F-3 tornadoes in the state since 1950 in New Jersey, the last one taking place in 1990. But based on pictures he’s seen, Robinson said it’s possible New Jersey may have experienced its first-ever F-4.
“From the damage I have seen in some photographs down there, this seems to me that the [National] Weather Service will call it an EF-3,” he predicted. “They just might call it an EF-4, which would be unprecedented in New Jersey in the 75-year history of official data gathering.”
KYW Newsradio's Mike DeNardo, Mike Dougherty and Kristen Johanson contributed to this report.