FORT ALLEN, Pa.,None — Residents of Fort Allen in Westmoreland County are cleaning up after a tornado touched down Wednesday, destroying everything in its path.
Jason Dillie and his wife were supposed to move into a house along Fosterville Road this weekend, but only half of the home is still standing,
"Our dining room and our living room pretty much got the worst of it," said Dillie. "(Our appliances) were pretty much all new, about a year old. All of our appliances are pretty much gone now and a lot of our wedding gifts and everything we got from our wedding."
The tornado split the home in two. The couple's furniture is now a pile of wood chips, and their bathroom is unrecognizable. However, three bedrooms in the back of the home are spotless.
"I don't even think there's a crack in the wall," said Dillie. "It's simply amazing."
Enormous trees in the back yard of the home were uprooted and destroyed everything in their path.
"It happened to fall into our pool, and it took our whole entire fence and our shed back here," said Dillie. "It pretty much got everything we owned."
The Dillies are just one of many families in Fort Allen digging out after the tornado struck.
Donna Ross and her daughter were home when it hit.
"It just split the walls, knocked everything off, everything came forward from the walls," said Ross.
But one one thing that didn't fall from the wall was Ross' teapot collection, family heirlooms that mean the most to her.
"I started in 1991 because my mother died and left me (an) orange teapot," Ross said. "Not a scratch. Not one fell, nothing."
Rescue crews went door to door several times Wednesday night to make sure no one was trapped or injured.
"I looked out the window, and I could see all kind of debris flying all over the place," said Eugene Crimboli.
Firefighters said they didn't even feel safe going into a couple of the homes.
Neighbors in damaged houses along Fosterville Road couldn't believe what they witnessed.
"Just unbelievable, incredible. The noise that you heard, and the wind and the smashing; I could hear there was glass breaking everywhere," said Dana Livingston.
Those who chose to stay home were told to stay inside. The roads were blocked, and no one was allowed on the streets.
Several homes in one neighborhood were nearly destroyed. Channel 11's Brandon Hudson reported that at least one home had its entire roof torn off. The homeowner's uncle was there on Thursday helping clean up.
"Hopefully they can salvage something. They put a lot of money into the house. He really had it fixed up nice," said Frank Ansell.
Four miles away in Hempfield Township there was similar destruction. The tornado apparently skipped and jumped, landing along Edna Road off Route 136. Hempfield Area High School was damaged and dozens of other homes in that area were destroyed or damaged.
No serious injuries were reported.
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