POTTSTOWN, PA — Several massive trees were brought down during the storms in Montgomery County Wednesday, according to numerous reports across social media, tearing down power lines and blocking roads.
Wind gusts tore through the region in a brief but torrid peak of the storm that left some communities picking through the damage on Thursday.
Residents and emergency scanner accounts reported extreme straight line wind gusts during the height of the severe thunderstorm watch, though the National Weather Service has not confirmed specific numbers.
In Pottstown, the downed trees knocked out power and caused some chaos on the roads.
"Please be careful," Pottstown Mayor Stephanie Henrick warned during the storm. "There are a lot of trees and branches down. Traffic lights are out. Homeowners please be safe when standing in the street and trying to clear the debris and watch out for drivers that are not paying attention. Please be patient with our staff as they work to address any issues."
One neighbor described a large tree on his property being "split like a toothpick."
In addition to impacting yards, roads, and houses, trees also fell down across the Linden Apartment building.
In addition to high winds, the storm also brought down short but intense, blinding downpours of rain and hail.
Tens of thousands of residents were briefly without power. The number of residents impacted piked as high as around 30,000 throughout the region on Wednesday night.
While some power outages lingered in to Thursday, lingering impacts were not as significant as other storms in the past. As of just after 10 a.m., about less than 3,000 residents were impacted by outages.
Estimated restoration times were mostly within a few hours.
No injuries have been reported thus far.
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