DELMAR, Md.- Many people spent their day cleaning up after strong storms swept through parts of Delmarva on Monday morning.
One of those hard-hit areas was on the Maryland side of Delmar, where trees were toppled and plenty of nerves rattled.
"I heard like a big bang and I assumed a transformer must have blown," said Laura LaPlante, who lives on Foskey Lane.
LaPlante said the noise made her come out to see what was happening. She said a tree was uprooted and toppled over just a few feet right behind her house.
"Actually we just had the trees looked at not too long ago and we were told that tree was fine," LaPlante said.
Another big tree had fallen over in front of a house on Northumberland Drive, which was a sight commonly seen all over Delmar.
"This is the ceiling you can see the sky coming through the house," said Keith Hitchens, who had an even bigger mess with a hole in his bedroom's roof.
"The tree came in through the ceiling, through the roof and into my house and it is completely destroyed inside," he said.
Tina Lambert did not even know a tree came down in her front yard.
"I'm grateful it didn't fall on our house" Lambert said, who found the tree split in half.
"There's trees and then there's hard storms so there is always a chance but you expect that more in a hurricane and not in a regular thunderstorm," she said.
Neighbors said they were relieved no one was hurt but that the aftermath will keep them busy.
"Like I said this is going to be firewood for next winter," LaPlante said about the fallen tree in her backyard.
"It's just a house," Hitchens said. "Family is more important, my daughter, my wife and my mom."
Officials did not report any injuries but were warning residents in both the Delaware and Maryland sides of Delmar to be careful with downed powerlines on neighborhood roads.
"Stay away from the lines, even though they may seem like they are down they are not arching like that and they still could be live," said Capt. Alan Schweitzer of the Sussex County Technical Rescue Team, which assisted Maryland officials with the storm response. "We could also get what they call backfeed through the power lines and you can be electrocuted that way."
A tree toppled over a house on Foskey Lane in Delmar, Md., on Monday morning. (Photo: WBOC)
