MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (AP) - A small tornado touched down in a New Jersey town, mainly damaging trees and scaring residents along a 70-yard wide path of destruction, the National Weather Service said Thursday.
The EF0 twister, packing estimated winds of 80 mph, first struck the baseball field on the Brookdale Community College campus in the Lincroft section of Middletown on Wednesday, the weather service said. There it tossed a set of metal bleachers before heading toward a residential neighborhood.
Residents scrambled for cover as the tornado snapped trees and branches. While the weather service said the storm did not cause any direct structural damage, falling tree limbs did.
A 70-foot tree fell through the roof of a home. Hundreds of homes and businesses lost electricity.
Homeowner Ben Harris told the Asbury Park Press he hurried his family into the basement of their home as the storm approached. “When we got to the basement, you heard everything just stop, it just went quiet,” said Harris. “I think it was a tornado because I never heard anything go silent like that.”
No injuries were reported.
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