HARTLY, Del. — Communities in western Kent County are beginning the long cleanup process after powerful storms tore through the area Thursday night, downing trees, ripping roofs from homes and leaving residents to pick up the pieces.
Parts of the roof of a mobile home on Halltown Road in Hartly were torn off during the storm, and family members there are now weighing whether it's safe to stay given the extent of the damage.
For Shantelle Quinones, who lives at this mobile home, the storm arrived fast. She was sitting on her sofa when a tornado warning alert told her to seek shelter in a basement — something her mobile home doesn't have. Instead, she headed to a closet in her bedroom with her daughter and their two dogs.
"For a moment, I got really scared and I thought we were not going to make it,” Quinones said. “It was a really bad experience and scary. And I just remember grabbing my daughter because she's all I have.”
Quinones said the family listened to heavy rain and wind for several minutes before hearing a loud slam as the house shook.
"I remember trying to call my mom in Florida, my sister, because I thought I had to say goodbye to them because, well, you could hear outside and the way the house was moving. It was bad," she said.
She said she and her daughter held each other and cried, terrified, as her fiancé — went to check the damage after the shaking stopped. He looked out a window and saw that part of the roof had landed in their front yard. When Quinones stepped out of the closet, she found water dripping through the walls and pooling on the floor throughout the hallway and kitchen.
She said she and her fiancé debated whether it was safe to leave, unsure if conditions outside had calmed. Minutes later, a rescue team from the Hartly Volunteer Fire Company knocked on their door and advised the family to evacuate.
Quinones said the experience was frightening, but she's grateful it wasn't worse.
"It was like it was devastating because I was like, oh my God. I mean, it's hard to see that, but it could have been so much worse. We could have lost our lives. I'm so glad that we are alive and we got protected because you can see the damage is really bad," she said.
Parts of the roof of a mobile home in Hartly were torn off during Thursday's storm.
Over in Marydel, James Rigby said multiple trees came down on the property where he's lived his entire life.
“I've lived here my whole life, and I've never seen anything like this,” Rigby said. “ I mean, it just came through and partied the skies and took stuff out and then. No questions. It was the blink of an eye."
Rigby, like other longtime residents, said Thursday's storm was unlike anything he'd experienced there before. He said right now he's focused on what matters most.
"I mean, you can't replace, person. So, I mean, that's all that matters to me. I mean, we can fix all this, and I can patch my roof with this little sealant I got here, but I can't replace no one's life, so I'm just happy for that," he said.
Clearing the damage has been a group effort, Rigby said, describing how it took six neighbors working together just to remove one fallen tree — one of many down on his property.
John Tinger, Kent County's chief of public safety, told WBOC that four areas of damage were reported in the Hartly-Marydel area: Grygo Road, Halltown Road and two locations near Parker's Chapel. No injuries were reported.
Kent County Public Safety and the National Weather Service were in Marydel on Friday assessing the damage and speaking with residents.
