Cleanup underway in South Jersey after strong winds brought down trees, damaged homes
Cleanup continued in Robbinsville Township on Tuesday as public works crews cleared debris after many trees toppled over when powerful winds blew through the area Sunday.
"It was pretty wild. We've had some pretty extreme winds in the past but nothing like this, and it really sounded like a freight train moving through the area when the initial storm moved through," Tom Septak said.
Septak said he had company over Sunday afternoon, and as soon as they went to leave, a large tree fell over in his yard, which narrowly missed power lines hanging overhead.
"Just heard an extremely loud crack and a smash and the whole house and everything shook," Septak said.
Robbinsville Township activated its office of emergency management after officials say 18 serious incidents happened in a matter of minutes.
Police said they fielded calls of transformer fires, trees on homes and cars, and wires down over roads.
"We had some pretty big transformer explosions, and a lot of people were at risk, but we got ahead of it and started pushing trees out of the way," Lt. Scott Kivet said.
Kivet said luckily no one in the township was seriously injured.
Jersey Central Power and Light told CBS News Philadelphia approximately 145,000 JCP&L customers were affected by the strong winds over the past couple days. JCP&L added about 2,200 customers in the state were still without power Tuesday. Officials said power will be restored for the majority of customers sometime on Tuesday, and for the harder hit areas that could extend into Wednesday.
Septak said he's grateful the tree that fell outside his home didn't cause significant damage.
"I was just fortunate enough that it didn't hit my neighbor's house or go out into the road and take down poles," he said.
