Cinnaminson, N.J. still cleaning up after tornado damage
CINNAMINSON, N.J. (CBS) -- Many people are still cleaning up after nine confirmed tornadoes touched down in our area last Saturday. CBS News Philadelphia was in Cinnaminson on Monday and since then the landscape still looks the same.
Downed trees line the roadway and remain stuck in people's yards.
One of those tornados happened in Crosswicks.
"That's right, massive trees like this one still lines the side of roadways here. It takes a storm like this to realize how massive these trees are, many people here say last Saturday night changed their perspective on living in New Jersey," Martin Reynolds said.
As he showed us around his property in Crosswicks, one thought keeps crossing Reynolds' mind.
"Dollar signs," Reynolds said.
Saturday night's EF-1 tornado knocked down several large trees around his property.
"And we could hear the rumbles, roars, and all the trees cracking and stuff hitting the house," Reynolds said.
But none of that stuff damaged Reynolds' house.
"Went around and decided everything out here was okay, went in and pulled the sheets over my head and went to bed," Reynolds said.
Down the street from Reynolds, it wasn't as calm inside Cheryl Johnson's house.
"I could see the shearing winds going across," Johnson said. "I could see debris starting to fly down the road and to me, that was petrifying."
The National Weather Service says those winds Johnson saw had a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour. It damaged the top of her chimney and split apart a beloved oak tree.
They hope to salvage the wood and recycle it into a piece of furniture.
"That oak tree has been here a long, long time, and it's gorgeous so hopefully we'll keep it in the family a little longer," Johnson said.
Reynolds says that compared to the damage this storm system brought to other states this wasn't as bad as it could've been.
"What was it here...just enough to get by," Reynolds said. "It's all about money and paying for the trees now."
But Johnson says this storm didn't just leave its mark on her community's landscape. It left an indelible impact.
"The memories from it, although we didn't have mass destruction, still quite memorable and put a fear in me," Johnson said.
The NWS is still determining how long and wide of a path the tornado touched down in Crosswicks.
In Bill Thompson's yard, the tornado uprooted a tree and much of the ground around it, snapped a metal fence, and just missed his house.
Thompson's lived in the neighborhood for decades and says he's never seen damage from a tornado like this before.
While he says he's lucky his house wasn't damaged, it comes at a price.
"It's not a cheap endeavor, and none of this is covered by insurance because it didn't touch any structures," Thompson said. "And the one who suffered the most is my poor dog, cause the fence went down, he can't run around by himself anymore."
When we asked Thompson about the storms coming in Thursday night, he immediately said he doesn't even want to think about it.
Trevor and Amanda Loveland are staying in a hotel after Saturday's tornado caused a tree to crash into their house.
They said it's been an emotional roller coaster dealing with the clean-up.
"We just don't know what's next," Amanda Loveland said. "We just found out yesterday the structural engineer will be 14 days to tell us whether it's safe to go back in or not."
Trevor Loveland added, "It's kind of an up-and-down journey. I think we just feel really blessed that we're safe and that our dogs are safe, and it's a blessing that my wife's mom is Caribbean and taught about if you hear a whistle for a train, and there's no train, it's either a tornado, hurricane and earthquake."
