MULLICA HILL – When tornado warnings pinged phones and skies grew dark Thursday night, many in South Jersey hunkered down.
But someone had to deliver the pizza.
Co-workers Brianna Riggio and Joseph Taormina were out delivering 20 pizzas in Deptford as a funnel cloud appeared to form and high winds sent traffic lights swaying along Bankbridge Road.
They thought they were in the middle of a tornado, so Taormina started recording.
So what’s it like to be outside and see a funnel cloud?
“Ask him,” Riggio said. “I was in the car scared!”
By Friday afternoon, a severe-weather survey team confirmed the pair had indeed witnessed a tornado.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly actually confirmed two tornadoes: One in Mullica Hill and another “that tracked discontinuously from Deptford to Blackwood.”
“A tornado formed in the development near Saddle Court in Mullica Hill,” the weather service said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. “This caused damage to fencing at one residence, and ripped a gutter off another residence. Backyard furniture was lifted approximately 50 yards.”
The tornado moved northeast, damaging some trees before lifting southwest of Route 322, the weather service said.
The tornado then “took a non-continuous path” from Deptford into the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township, snapping and uprooting hardwood trees, the weather service said.
Three Deptford homes were damaged by tree debris, and an uprooted tree damaged an apartment building.
In Gloucester Township, Blackwood Elementary School was closed Friday for a storm-related power outage.
By around noon Friday, everything was almost “back to normal” as crews worked to restore power to the school and several units at an apartment building, said Lt. James Schriver of the Gloucester Township Police Department.
Utility workers also were out Friday on Erial-Blenheim Road and Tice Avenue, where downed trees and power lines had caused closures.
The National Weather Service said the area experienced the two weakest types of tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Mullica Hill recorded an EF-0 tornado, with winds ranging from 65 to 85 mph, while the Deptford-to-Blackwood twister carried EF-1 winds, ranging from 86 to 109 mph.
The weather survey team also determined that straight-line winds of 60 to 80 mph hit Salem County around 8 p.m. Thursday. The winds were responsible for tree damage in the Salem area, the weather service said.
“The winds also damaged a garage door and flipped a boat at a residence on Amwellbury Road,” according to the weather service.
The tornadoes in Camden and Gloucester counties came on the heels of an EF-1 tornado that struck North Jersey in May.
Forecasters last month confirmed a tornado downed trees and power lines and caused some damage to high school in Stanhope, Sussex County.
by Sheri Berkery (2019, June 13 | 2019, June 15) Cherry Hill Courier-Post
