Pocono News Section

Tuesday Night's Storm Timeline

Tuesday Night's Storm Timeline - Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 7:25PM EST

Reported by: Meteorologist Dave Skutnik
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008 @ 07:25pm EST
It'll take days or even weeks to clean up the mess left behind by Tuesday night's storm. However it took less than an hour for it to carve a path of destruction through Northeast PA.

That thunderstorm began its tear through the area around 7:15 in Columbia County. Trees were toppled all over the place from Bloomsburg to Berwick. Chris Ehmer of Bloomsburg said, "The top of this hill is pretty well ripped up. There are a lot of trees down. A lot of damage."

The storm then sped northeast into Luzerne County, hammering Hunlock Creek and Sweet Valley around 7:30. Trees and power lines left a tangled mess, and it could be days before all the lights are turned back on. People couldn't believe how fast the storm moved in. Janet Rupp said, “The wind kicked up and branches started falling and then boom it sounded just like a big tree hit the house."

The storm then roared through the Back Mountain into Shavertown around 7:40 cutting down an 80-year-old pine tree along Route 309, trapping two boys in their car under live power lines. But they consider themselves lucky. Christian Szot said, "Like 10 seconds later our car would have been under that tree and 10 seconds earlier we would have gotten hit by the power lines so I guess it was lucky in a way, you know?"

It continued northeast into Lackawanna County around 8:00 when it slammed into Jermyn and Mayfield. Here too people thought it was a tornado ripping through their neighborhood. Teri Blackburn of Mayfield said, "It was bad. We thought we had to go into the basement. It was pretty scary."

The storm began to lose some steam while trucking up Route 6 between Waymart and Honesdale in Wayne County around 8:15. But it still had enough punch to take out power and keep some businesses from opening.