High winds overnight across New Jersey left extensive damage
in its path, including in
Scotch Plains, where a large tree came crashed down through a house and
cut it in half.
A neighbor tells News
12 the homeowner is 75 years old and uses an oxygen
machine. He was apparently relaxing when the storm hit.
“He was watching TV,
and a tree came both ways, 8 inches above his head,” says Denise
Calcaterra.
Calcaterra says her neighbor
crawled his way to safety and was eventually pulled from the
home by a firefighter.
“I heard a bang, and
it was that tree had come down,” says Richard Diamond. “It was pretty
intense.”
Another large tree came down over
on Montrose Avenue just off Westfield Avenue, across the street from Scotch
Plains Fanwood High School.
The streetlight
connected to the utility pool was snapped. A vehicle on the other side of
the driveway was also hit by the tree, but it appears the house suffered only
minimal damage.
“We had a really good little mini burst, if you will, it came
through right in this area because the rest of the borough seems to be OK at
this point,” says Fanwood Public Works Director Clint Dickson.