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Cleaning Up After the Storm in Lackawanna County

BENTON TOWNSHIP — Monday’s strong winds tore down trees and power lines in Lackawanna County, leaving many people in the Fleetville area without ele...

BENTON TOWNSHIP -- Monday's strong winds tore down trees and power lines in Lackawanna County, leaving many people in the Fleetville area without electricity. Some people were trapped on their properties.

Four large trees along Route 107 in Benton Township came down in one fell swoop and landed on a home late Monday afternoon.  The woman who lives there did not want to be identified but described how the damage to her home was not her only worry.

"I can't get out. There are two trees, one across the middle part of the driveway completely with power lines, and then there's another one at the end," she said.

A tree removal company hired by the power company worked to get her out and to restore power to hundreds of homes in Benton Township.  Parts of Route 107 were closed Tuesday for those crews and for fallen trees that blocked the roadway.

Other homeowners nearby at Deer Lake had generators running and were prepared for a long power outage.

"This grid up here in Fleetville, for whatever reason, is always the first to go out and the last to come on," Jim Kosydar said.

Kosydar and his wife avoided any major damage but had a lot to clean up.

"This was an incredible amount of rain. I have a rain gauge like you guys do in your backyard, and I measured 3.5 inches of rain in probably 20 minutes," Kosydar added.

The skies opened up again Tuesday afternoon as crews cleaned up a property right next to Deer Lake.  Dozens of trees were torn down in the wind.

"I have been here since '62. It is never been like this. We had one episode, years ago. It was never this bad," said Phil Stephens of Deer Lake.

Stevens said it looked like a tornado to him.

"I don't think there's any doubt. How do you lift these trees out of the ground like that? It was not a little four mile and hour wind. It was moving," he said.

The National Weather Service will make the official designation to decide within the next few days whether or not it was a tornado that caused all the damage in Lackawanna County.

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