RAW: PA: STORM RIPS ROOF OFF OF HOUSING UNIT
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Philadelphia (KYW) — More than two dozen people are displaced after part of the roof came off a Philadelphia Housing Authority building in West Philly during strong storms Saturday afternoon.
Firefighters were on the scene near 55th and Vine streets Saturday afternoon, where a large piece of metal and piles of debris were on the ground near the building.
Tyreese Niblack, who was in the building at the time, described what happened.
“I heard a giant boom, and I’m like, ‘Did we get hit by lightning?’ Then I looked out the front door and saw the roof was on top of my vehicle, and then, immediately, the leaking from the third floor and the second floor started to come down, so I immediately started unplugging everything and then getting the kids out,” Niblack said. “Once I knew the kids were out, I stayed in just to grab the important paperwork and anything I could … I don’t know when they’re gonna let us back in.”
Inside, it looks “like someone turned the spigot on from the ceiling, on each floor,” he said.
Niblack said he and his wife were planning to start their honeymoon Monday morning, but he’s not sure what’s next for his family.
No injuries have been reported.
Eleven apartments were significantly damaged, and the more than 30 residents of those units have been moved to a nearby hotel for the next week or so, Kelvin Jeremiah, CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, said in a press conference Saturday night. The housing authority has found new units for them to move into, Jeremiah said.
Jeremiah said the building has a concrete roof but water was able to get in and damage some apartments.
Crews were at the scene Saturday night cleaning up the debris.
City leaders urge caution, patience
In a press conference Saturday night, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other local leaders urged residents to be patient as crews respond to damage around the city.
Parker asked residents to check on their neighbors and said cleaning up downed trees and power lines and resolving power outages will take time.
Parks and Recreation Commissioner Susan Slawson said her agency is working to clean up downed trees. Slawson said workers are prioritizing trees that are blocking homes and roads.
No injuries related to the storms have been reported, Fire Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson said.
Storm damage around Philadelphia area
Officials said more than 3,000 calls came into Philadelphia’s 911 center at the height of the storm, which is a surge from a normal day.
In Wynnefield, neighbors said about a dozen cars were partially submerged in several feet of water near 57th Street and Lebanon Avenue. Some basements flooded, cars were damaged, and when the water receded, the roads were turned into a muddy mess.
“This was an impressive storm,” said Dominick Mireles, deputy managing director with the Office of Emergency Management. “The widespread damage across seven zip codes, we’re talking West Philadelphia, Overbrook, Wynnefield, down to South Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia.”
At 55th Street and Cedar Avenue in West Philly, a large tree uprooted part of a sidewalk and came crashing down on top of Tykeyah Guinn’s SUV.
“Thank God no one was in there. It’s just a car, it can be replaced, but it is still very frustrating,” Guinn said.
Neighbors say power lines started sparking, and their electricity went out around three in the afternoon.
“We heard something go boom and started seeing this green flash and all the power, it went zzzzzz,” Kimberly Shaw said.
At 58th and Lansdowne Avenue, police said part of an auto service building collapsed. Bricks landed on cars and covered part of the street, leaving several trolleys stranded with nowhere to go.
“The bricks just started coming down really slow, and I ran from my front door to the kitchen, and that was it,” said Angela Scott, who lives across the street.
What is a microburst?
At least four separate microbursts caused the damage across the city on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service surveyed the damage and found four distinct microbursts raced from Lower Merion through West and South Philadelphia between about 2:45 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. Wind speeds were estimated between 60 and 70 miles per hour, leaving a damage path roughly 12 miles long.
So, what exactly is a microburst?
Inside a thunderstorm, rain falls into a layer of dry air. As that rain evaporates, it cools the air, making it much heavier. That cool air crashes toward the ground, then spreads outward in every direction like water hitting the floor.
Those straight-line winds can be incredibly destructive, ripping off roofs, snapping trees, knocking out power, and in stronger cases, reaching over 100 miles an hour. That’s exactly the type of wind damage we saw across the city.
Storms cause power outages
Saturday’s storms caused power outages across the Delaware Valley.
As of 11 p.m. Saturday, about 25,000 PECO customers were without power, including 16,052 in Philadelphia.
A few dozen customers with PSE&G, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric were also experiencing outages, according to the companies.
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