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Gloucester County Residents: ‘This storm was terrifying’

Posted at 6:19 PM, Feb 21, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-22 10:16:23-05

Uprooted trees, sections of homes and roofs blown away, and property destroyed.

"It was terrifying,” says Kathleen Hamilton, who lives in the Riverpark Road trailer court in Gloucester. “Sounded like a freight train coming through."

The worst part of the storm rolled through Gloucester in less than ten minutes, but that's all it took.

"You see it other places but you never think it's going to happen to you," says Alice West, who lives off Tidemill Road in Hayes.

West wasn't home when a tree hit the side of her house and wind flattened her screened in patio.

"We used to have once a year family picnics, so that's gone," she says.

Folks in the Riverpark Road trailer court were also hit hard.

"Me and my son was trying to hold the door shut and we could see through the door that the porch was coming up, coming up, and it just went over," says Cheryl Sullivan.

"The trailer was shaking and rocking, we had pictures falling off the walls," Hamilton says.

Hamilton was on the verge of tears as she described the destruction.

"We lost skirting, we lost our shed, everything that was up in the shed pretty much,” she says. “I mean we still have a little bit left, if it's even salvageable."

Despite the widespread damage throughout the county, deputies say there were no serious injuries.

"Just glad to be here," Sullivan says.

Hamilton worries what the next storm could bring.

"If we get something like this again, what's going to happen,” Hamilton says. “I know mobile homes aren't 100 percent safe, but what's going to happen.”

Click here to see photos from today's storm.