SCRANTON, Pa. — "I heard another sound behind the thunder. I said, 'Thunder doesn't sound back to back.' I said, 'Wait a minute, get away from the windows. It's the trees coming down," said Linda Nieves.
It was the trees coming down. Now, those trees are spread across Linda Nieves' backyard in Scranton after Monday night's storms ripped through Lackawanna County.
"I saw this flash of white. I said, 'That's really close'! How close? The trees came crashing down," said Nieves.
The Scranton mother has a video detailing that moment. Nieves believes it was lightning that cracked it in half.
"It sounded so much louder than on this video, because this was only the beginning then we hid inside," she explains while watching it back.
But the most shocking part? This isn't her first time dealing with fallen trees around her home.
"This is a new porch from the last tree that crashed down," gestures Nieves. "It came right from the center."
She's not the only one in Scranton cleaning up. Over at Gerrity's Supermarket on Meadow Avenue in Scranton, it's business as usual. But it was a long night for workers- as power went out at three separate stores.
"Our Moosic store came on pretty quickly. Our West Scranton was out for about two to three hours. But this store, this store was a lot longer," said Co-Owner Joe Fasoula.
Workers were there into the early morning hours trying to keep the goods, cold.
"To some extent, it is a hope and a prayer. But we do have some procedures. What we do is that we have plastic sheets we put over all our open cases. A lot of times, we will get cardboard boxes- break them open, and put them there. What that does is allow us to get extra time," said Fasoula.
For the most part, it worked. By the time the power came back on around 3 a.m., "What we do is we actually go around, we take this gun, and we temp everything. It's an infrared thermometer, and we temp everything. Anything below 41 degrees we know is safe. Anything above that, we had to throw it out," he added.
As homes and businesses throughout Scranton continue to deal with this summer of storms.
"The funny thing is, I have a Bassett hound, and she's adorable, sweet, and cute. Every time we get thunder, she shakes. I would always say, 'Why would she shake? That's ridiculous. I'm starting to shake when we get thunder now," said Fasoula.