Hard hit Delaware County struggles after Nor'easter

HAVERTOWN, Pa. (WTXF) - Traffic lights are out, trees are down and thousands of people are in the dark, all thanks to powerful winds.

In hard hit Delaware County, a declaration of disaster emergency has been ordered in response to the damage caused by March 2nd's storm.

Up and down the block the only power to homes are from generators. The damage is bad. Enormous trees crashed down onto live wires.

A fridge full of food gone to waste. Steve Kessler's house lost power Friday afternoon March 2nd. One day later, he had a generator going, though too late to salvage much of anything.

"I even have a freezer chest downstairs and it is what it is. There's nothing you can do about it," said Kessler.

The first full day of aftermath and after high winds coupled with wet snow brought down massive trees and branches across Delaware County.

"I heard a crack and by the time I turned around, it was on the power lines," neighbor Rose said.

Next door to Steve, twins Rose and Greta had just gotten home from school when parts of their neighbor's tree toppled to the ground.

The electric outages stretching into nightfall. Street after street dark or barely lit. Almost 30 percent of Delaware County remains without power according to PECO statistics.

"It broke at the root base," Bish Kulpinski said.

Bish Kulpinksi was getting ready to hunker down in his home for the night. Bish was inside his house when his neighbor's tall oak came crashing down. He says the driver of the truck it's now resting on is very lucky.

"He swerved, slammed on his brakes and the car slid over because this was all slushy at the time," Kulpinski explained, "The tree just missed him and there was another car coming this way that jammed on his breaks and luckily, thank God, he didn't hit the tree or the tree didn't hit him."