National Weather Service: EF-1 tornado touched down in Bernardsville, N.J.
BERNARDSVILLE, N.J. -- The National Weather Service has confirmed that two tornadoes touched down in our area as a result of Monday's storms.
The sound of chainsaws was prevalent Wednesday as crews cleaned up a big mess across Bernardsville, New Jersey.
An EF-1 tornado with wind speeds of up to 105 mph ripped through that part of Somerset County on Monday, snapping trees in its path and destroying a half-dozen cars.
"The fireman said a cell came through here and created a 50-yard path all the way down to town," resident Jim Solano said.
The tornado brought down a massive tree on Timber Rock Trail and on to Solano's girlfriend's house -- right into the master bedroom.
"Water came like a waterfall and it's probably a quarter million dollars with of damage," Solano said.
READ MORE: Deadly tornado rips through North Texas town, leaves "utter devastation"
On Anderson Hill Road, a tree crashed down on Walter Tecune's SUV. His home was surrounded by downed wires.
His daughter says Monday was terrifying.
"We heard a loud boom," Milagros Tecun said.
Police say at the height of the storm 98% of the town was left without power. Now, much of the service has been restored as residents continue to clean up this mess.
"The tree broke and hit three cars here," Joe Di Norcia said.
That happened next door to Di Norcia's home, where he hunkered down as the tornado moved through.
"Like a train. I mean, you could hear a lot of commotion and wind. I went to school in Oklahoma. There, you can see them when they come. Here, you can't," Di Norcia said.
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New Jersey has seen 10 tornadoes this year and we are only half-way through the year. Weather experts say it's hard to say if the severe weather is a result of climate change.
"I wouldn't necessarily connect the dots. I don't know if it's anything bigger. Could it be? Sure, But we've seen this sort of activity in the past, so I wouldn't totally make that connection. I think it's just totally the fact that we've seen quite a bit of severe weather this year and a handful of the events have had tornadoes with them," said Rob Reale, director of meteorological services for WeatherWorks.
The National Weather Service also said an EF-0 tornado touched down in Pennsylvania, on the border of Belvidere, New Jersey.
