YORK COUNTY, Pa. — Downed lines, outages, and widespread damage littered the lower portion of South Central Pennsylvania Monday night.
Southern York County residents, like Carl and his son-in-law, took the brunt of the storm and were left to clean limbs scattered throughout the area.
“That one I didn’t expect it to [fall]," Carl, a Heidelberg Township resident said. "It looked like a healthy tree but it snapped in half."
Many smaller roads were blocked with down trees, power lines, or a combination of the two.
“I looked out and saw the flash and bang," Carl said while describing the worst of the storm. "It was close."
Close calls were common across York County. Park rangers dealt with live lines in Codorus State Park.
On the other side of Interstate 83, Dave McDowell had several trees come down and was without power in Hopewell Township.
"This is a pretty wicked storm," McDowell said while holding a limb. "I don’t think we had a tornado but it was pretty rough."
Nearby, residents of Oakwood Heights lost road access on both sides.
“I was here [in] 2012 when we had Hurricane Sandy," Oakwood Heights resident Sandy Thompson recalled. "It was not this bad."
“It wasn’t quite like the train sound, but there was definitely a rumble in the wind," Oakwood Heights resident Betsy Hodgson added. "I started hearing the branches snapping."
After the wind and rain, there was a calm sense of relief.
“[I] praise God we’re glad to have the house safe," McDowell said. "Our family is safe, we can fix this.”