Delaware County Emergency Services personnel took politicians and reporters on a brief tour of parts of Chadds Ford Township damaged during Monday night’s storm. Along the way they met a man who said he could see the wind.
Robert Tucker and his family have lived on Kelly Drive for four years. “You never think it’s going to happen to you and when it does, it happens so fast. All the devastation you see here happened within a nine to 12- minute period.” 
That devastation included 26 trees on Tucker’s property, along with damages to other properties. He said tree removal cost him close to $30,000, and more than $50,000 for some of his neighbors.
There was still debris on the streets Thursday and Friday, and the heavily damaged lots had downed trees, splintered trunks, and broken limbs.
Tucker said he was closing the pool and talking to a friend on the phone right before his children called to him saying that a storm was coming. That was sometime between 6 and 6:30 p.m.
“No sooner did I get into the house, when we saw it coming through the woods. It’s the weirdest thing to see wind. I’ve never seen wind before…It was scary. We went straight to the basement and on my way catching my animals [four dogs], I saw these trees falling down behind our house. And when it was all over, my house was inaccessible, we couldn’t get in or out…It sounded like something very big was rolling through the trees. And in the background, you could see them falling. I could see them snapping in the background.”
What does wind look like, he was asked.
“It’s not smoke, it’s…It’s very hard to describe. It’s not smoky, it’s just that you can see things moving and then you feel the pressure of the wind against the house.”
But he added that there was something in the air right before the wind came, a calm before the storm. He said he told a friend on the phone that the air had no bugs in it.
“Does that sound weird? But nothing was moving in the air…Just an observation that there is a calm before the storm, most and Mother Nature knows. And the bugs knew that.
Tucker continued, acknowledging the potential issues of living on tree-lined property.
“Wind is weird because you can feel it, the pressure of it. You could certainly see everything flying but it wasn’t recognizable….What we have to do is understand it’s part of the risk of living in a wooded lot. It really is, and we’ve enjoyed the landscape so long and these things happen. As long as the house is OK and we’re safe, we’re a little bit better off than some of our neighbors.”
But the money issue is where the county Emergency Services comes into play.
Tim Boyce, Delaware County’s director of Emergency Management Services, said the purpose of the tour was part of the damage assessment process.
“That assessment revealed where the worst of the worst is in Delaware County, cataloging every home. There’s a value we assign to that. The elected officials want to be briefed on that with the goal of seeking any type of Small Business Administration loan. The other goal is to communicate with the local municipalities. Chadds Ford and Thornbury townships have done an amazing job. Residents should call them so they can get on the list to get a total value [of the damage],” Boyce said.
As reported earlier, Chadds Ford is asking for a declaration of emergency and Boyce said that means the township can avoid normal purchasing rules, such as putting things out to bid. With an emergency declaration, the township can retain services for tree and debris removal right away, without needing the bidding process.
“During an emergency, municipalities can authorize direct spending,” he said. “The townships have stepped up to clear these roads, get people access. That costs a lot of money.
The tour wound down Heyburn Road to Smithbridge Road and then to Kelly Drive.
“This is a disaster area,” said Assistant Emergency Services Management Coordinator Ed Kline after a stop on Kelly Drive where one house was split by falling trees.
He said 40 trees were downed along the lower portion of Heyburn Road alone and a total of 27 homes in Chadds Ford were damaged by falling trees, with 14 sustaining major damage. Financially, he said there’s an estimated $100,000 worth of tree removal on Kelly Drive alone.
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5, said Congress needs to make sure FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is fully funded so the SBA loans would become available. She added that severe weather events are becoming much more common.
Those SBA loans would be needed because insurance only covers damages to the houses and driveways but does not cover tree removal.
“What we’re seeing, what we’re experiencing, these tornadoes in Southeast Pennsylvania was not the norm, now [that’s changed],” she said. “We’re seeing this every summer now.”
No tornado was in the area Monday night. Kline said the fact that all the downed trees came down in the same direction meant that they were knocked down by straight-line wind, not swirling winds associated with a tornado.
Along with Scanlon, Delaware County Council President Monica Taylor and state Sen. John Kane, D-9, were on the tour.
Taylor said people who suffered damage should report that to emergency services. That gives the county a chance to assess the damage so the county and state can apply for reimbursement.
A follow-up press release from the county also urges residents whose properties were damaged to contact the county.
"Residents are urged to report downed trees and property damage to their municipalities. The County’s Department of Emergency Services is continuing to work with affected municipalities to obtain damage-reporting data from their residents and business owners. They are beginning to obtain cost recovery data for storm-related damage to infrastructure, cleanup of streets, and public land for submission to PEMA for possible Public Assistance Reimbursement."
Chadds Ford Board of Supervisors encourage any resident who sustained structural damage to email the township (info@chaddsfordpa.gov) with their address, a short description of the damage, and photos if possible.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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