Published on March 17 | Updated on March 18
WILLINGBORO, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Severe storms rolled through the greater Philadelphia region overnight, leaving behind a lot of damage, especially in South Jersey. The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down in Delaware.
Trees and power lines came crashing down throughout the region. NWS officials surveyed damage in Burlington and Ocean counties in New Jersey, as well as southern Delaware, for signs of a tornado.
Officials said the damage in South Jersey was caused by straight-line winds, not a tornado. However, there was an EF1 tornado with 100 mph winds near Frederica, Kent County, Delaware.
There were no reports of injuries.
High winds in South Jersey
There were reports of trees crashing down onto cars and homes. On Tidewater Lane in Willingboro, two trees toppled onto two cars that were parked on one driveway. The roots of the tree appeared to have been ripped out of the ground.
The Deptford Public Library suffered some exterior damage. Director Michelle Burns said they couldn't open on time because of a power outage, and the sign above the entrance blew clean off.
The Deptford Public Library's seal was blown off during the storm.Mike Dougherty/KYW Newsradio
And it wasn't just the seal that got blown around. It was also trash night, so garbage is strewn all over the place, in addition to branches and leaves.
In Medford, downed power lines prevented Tuesday's mail delivery. The power lines fell on Stokes Road in front of the post office, and the building was without electricity.
A downed power line on Stokes Road in Medford.Mike DeNardo/KYW Newsradio
"There's approximately seven telephone poles that came down," said Medford Police Capt. Jeff Samalonis. "It actually came down on top of a car last night. Someone was trapped inside periodically, but she was able to get out uninjured."
The poles stretched across the roadway amid broken transformers and shattered streetlights, as PSE&G crews arrived to begin the cleanup and repairs. Samalonis said it was hoped that mail delivery could resume on Wednesday.
And in Mays Landing, the Funny Farm animal rescue and sanctuary is in cleanup mode, after the strong overnight winds caused damage to parts of the facility.
More than 750 animals — mostly farm animals — live on the property. All of them are safe, but according to founder and owner Laurie Zaleski, class trips and tours are being rescheduled.
"We were going to do a hayride today for a school and there were too many trees down to be able to have the hayride, because it's going to take us so much time to clean up," Zaleski said, adding that some internal fencing was lost.
"The entire 25 acres is fenced in, so the first thing we did was, we went around the perimeter to make sure no one was going to walk away — although the animals at the Funny Farm wouldn't leave, because it's kind of a Disneyland for animals here."
Volunteers are helping with the cleanup.
