Storm damages stadium, homes

Friday night havoc: Wind throws school bleachers 300 feet ‘A tree on your house’: Royersford resident assesses damage

Friday night’s weather wreaked havoc on the Spring-Ford area, drenching the area and causing damage to buildings after whipping winds knocked down trees and ripped up structures.

Spring-Ford Area High School experienced some of the storm’s wrath when heavy winds took down a set of bleachers that were set up along the first base line of the school’s baseball field. The bleachers were thrown more than 300 feet from where they originally stood. Roofing was also torn from the dugout as the thunderstorm pushed through the area.

The severe weather caused an hour delay for the school’s Friday night football game against Pottsgrove High School.

Branches, the bleachers and pieces of roofing remained scattered in the stadium Saturday morning.

The storm seemed to center its wrath on Royersford, where homes were also damaged.

Tim Korn of 370 Green Street in Royersford experienced setbacks because of the weather.

“It was about ten of five and I was napping on the couch,” recalled Korn. “All of a sudden the whole house shook...So I took a

The storm seemed to center its wrath on Royersford, where homes were also damaged. Spring-Ford Area High School experienced some of the storm’s wrath.

look out back and I saw a couple branches down and the rain was coming down sideways.”

Korn explained that he then made his way to his front porch, where the wind had died down.

“I looked over and saw my cable down and my Fios cable down and traffic couldn’t get through,” said Korn.

Before Korn could even call police, they had already arrived with fire departments. Officers blocked off both ends of the 300 block of Green Street so that repairs could be made.

But that wasn’t the real problem for Korn.

“When I came out on the porch a police officer says, ‘You know you have a tree on your house,’” said Korn.

Korn said Saturday that

the sycamore tree that had fallen on his house did not appear to cause any major structural damage to his home but it did shatter the windshield on his truck. Ironically, Korn said that the tree did not even cause a power outage.

“The power was good. We just lost cable and Fios. It broke the windshield on my truck and that was about it,” he explained. “After that I ran upstairs to see if it crashed through my roof. But I didn’t see any structural damage at the time but then the roof started leaking. So now I have some leaks and some shingles off. There’s a little damage up there — I just don’t know how much yet.”

Workers from Tree Pro Service were at Korn’s home Saturday taking down the sycamore tree and cleaning up branches.

Downed wires and fallen trees were also reported at Gay and Fourth streets in Royersford.

JOHN STRICKLER — THE MERCURY Tim Korn looks up at the damage to his home at 370 Green St. in Royersford after a severe storm and high winds snapped a large branch from the sycamore tree in his yard. Korn had damage on the roof of the home and garage. His windshield on his truck...