HARRISBURG, Pa. — Tropical Storm Debby may have passed, but residents on Bellevue Road are still feeling its effects.
“I never thought that I would be saying that there was a tornado in Harrisburg,” said resident Jeff Winand.
Winand and his husband have lived in the neighborhood for more than five years.
Friday’s strong winds and heavy rain left other neighborhoods in Harrisburg, like Berryhill Street, a mess.
Saturday was the first opportunity for many to start cleaning up.
“At first you couldn’t even walk in the streets there were so many trees down across the streets and they’re big trees so you couldn’t really walk through the streets, but we were going through people’s yards and things just trying to see, we were checking on all of our neighbors to make sure they were okay,” Winand said.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in Harrisburg just after 4:30 AM on Friday morning. It was only active for seven minutes but left days' worth of cleanup.
Contractors were seen working at Harrisburg Brethren in Christ Church after part of the building’s roof was blown off.
“The church will be fine, you know we’ll figure out how to meet online. We’ve done that through COVID, but a lot of stuff we’re doing for the community will have to be halted because we don’t have a space,” said senior pastor Hank Johnson.
It was all hands on deck.
City workers in Harrisburg also helped with cleanup efforts, clearing fallen tree branches and other debris from the streets.
“The mayor [Wanda Williams] was here yesterday and assured us that the city would be here to help us, and they showed up. They truly showed up,” Winand said.
It may take several more days to clean everything up, but residents are relieved to know they don’t have to do the job alone.
“Church will be good because God is good and we’ll figure it out,” Johnson said.