Trees fall, homes damaged after powerful winds in Philadelphia region
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Cleanup is now underway after strong winds across the Philadelphia region brought down trees and wires, and caused outages, delays, and damage.
Carlos Camacho and Michael Kambouris were fixing a tire late Tuesday afternoon at an Upper Southampton, Bucks County Sunoco when the winds started getting strong.
Suddenly a tree came crashing down at the nearby intersection.
"All of a sudden it started picking up real bad, and we were out there actually plugging a tire on a car, and all of a sudden boom- you could see the sparks go with the wire," Kambouris said.
"The wind came in and the tree completely fell off, and I looked back and I'm like, 'Oh my God,'" said Camacho.
The tall tree fell at the busy intersection of County Line Road and Huntingdon Pike, bringing down wires and knocking out power. Traffic was reduced to one lane and on Wednesday morning crews were out to make repairs.
"When I came in this morning everything here was on," said Janine Guido. "The one good thing about it is nobody got hurt because this intersection right here is very busy."
In Montgomery County, Lower Merion Public Works crews worked to cut a big tree into pieces and move it from the middle of Warwick Road in Wynnewood.
In Plymouth Township, David Chmelko's covered deck was destroyed when winds brought down part of a massive tree in his backyard.
"It's literally stretching across the entire of my house, so it's pretty crazy - never seen anything like it," Chmelko said.
Storm damage also led to suspended Regional Rail service Tuesday night on SEPTA's Wawa Media Line after trees came down near Moylan-Rose Valley Station.
"I knew it was going to storm, they said it this morning. I didn't know it was going to be like this," said Helen Morell, of Springfield.
Morell said her commute from Philadelphia to Upper Darby took nearly an extra hour and a half, and she had to enlist help to get home.
"I said, 'OK, I'll take the Wilmington Line and then have my husband pick me up in Glenolden, instead of coming into town, and then bring me here to get my car,'" Morell said as she arrived at her car in the Secane Train Station parking lot.
