Community Corner

Evergreen Road Residents Clean Up Tornado Damage

Summit recovers after confirmed tornado knocked down trees and power lines, leaving thousands in the dark Monday.

A confirmed tornado hacked down trees and ripped out power lines for many on Monday morning in Berkeley Heights, before tearing through New Providence and Summit, and residents were still cleaning up the damages on Tuesday afternoon.

The EF-0 tornado touched down near the Passaic River just west of Garfield Street in Berkeley Heights with estimated wind speeds at 85 mph before moving through New Providence and lifting in Summit near Evergreen Road, according to the National Weather Service. Thousands were left without power, although most residents had power restored on Tuesday. 

Tree removal crews could be seen cleaning up the tornado’s damage on Evergreen Road and surrounding streets on Tuesday afternoon. See photos of the damage here.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Claire Schiff, an 87-year-old Evergreen Road resident, sustained extensive damage to her house and arguably the most out of any resident on her street.

Schiff told Patch that she has a cochlear implant processor that broke last week so she temporarily can’t hear anything. But when the tornado hit, Schiff says she heard something.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I was sitting here reading some mail that came the day before and all of a sudden, I heard something and I happen to be deaf. For me to hear anything, it has to be pretty loud. I didn’t know what it was,” Schiff told Patch Tuesday afternoon. “I opened the front door and I couldn’t open the screen door because a tree was completely across the front of it. The firemen came and removed most of it so there was an entrance to walk on. But thank God nothing was affected. My electricity wasn’t affected. I was just lucky.”

Another tree partially knocked down the roof and one wall of her enclosed porch on the side of her house. A tree limb even punctured her bedroom ceiling right above the bed.

Johnetta Harris, 63, comes to Schiff’s house every day to take care of her and told Patch that she put a bucket underneath the punctured ceiling to catch any rainwater. 

Harris was on her way to Schiff’s house when the tornado hit.

“Thank God she was downstairs. She was sitting in [the living room] when it happened,” Harris told Patch. “It’s some type of a mental sense. Something else just took over from the hearing. God works in mysterious ways.” 

Schiff had numerous fallen trees, limbs and debris scattered around and near her property. A tree removal crew was cleaning up the debris on Tuesday.

Other residents of Evergreen Road were also home when the tornado ripped through the neighborhood, including the Crane family.

Trevor Crane, 11, says he saw the warning on TV.

“We looked out the window, and my husband and I said, ‘we have to run to the basement,’” said Joy Crane, Trevor’s mother. “A transformer exploded. [The tornado] came right along here.” 

Joy said it looked like the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy on Evergreen Road. The only difference is that the destruction is now on her street this time.

“The irony is this street was unscathed, untouched; we didn’t lose any power during Sandy so we took turns hosting parties. People came over to take showers, do laundry, charge their stuff. Now it’s the opposite,” Joy told Patch Tuesday afternoon. “I drove off of Evergreen and [it looks like] the rest of Summit is fine. [We] lost power for 13 hours. I came home from work [Monday] night and there was a caravan of repair trucks and I was so excited to see them. Within two or three hours of them being here, it was back on.”

Across the street, 13-year-old James Lawton said he was home when the wind picked up during the storm.

“I was inside my house and I didn’t really think it was a tornado,” Lawton told Patch. “There was just a lot of wind. I thought the trees were going to fall over. It just seemed really powerful. The windows were rattling. I saw a tree [on my street] that split apart.” 

Owen Lawton, 11, was at camp down the street but said the lights were flickering. “It was scary.” 

Heidi Russell, James and Owen’s mother, said she grew up in California and really only worries about earthquakes, not tornadoes. 

Russell said a tree removal crew was already at one of the homes on Evergreen before the storm hit, which came in handy when the tornado knocked over a large tree across Evergreen Road, blocking residents from entering or leaving the dead end strett.

Rachel Emke, a 21-year-old from Germany, was babysitting two children at that particular home on Monday morning.

“We had some workers here to cut the trees down and get the dead parts down. I just woke up the kids 10 minutes before it happened,” Emke said. “We just went down and we were watching TV, and an emergency call came on the TV. It was a blue screen and said a tornado was coming in Summit so I said, ‘OK kids, go in the basement.’”

Over on Hartley Road, Newark resident Helena Ferreira was babysitting two children, too, when the storm came through Summit. 

“We saw the lights flickering. It was very windy, a lot of rain,” Ferreira told Patch. “There’s a house with a tree next to us and we thought the tree was going to come down any second. We just ran to the basement. I’ve never seen it before; that was my first time. I never think about tornadoes in this area. I didn’t think it was possible.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here