■ The entire second floor of Ashley and Troy Thomas’ home was gone Thursday morning. The first floor had collapsed into the basement where the family was trapped Wednesday night when a tornado stormed through Mullica Hill in Gloucester County, New Jersey.

New Jersey family recounts being trapped inside home when tornado hit Mullica Hill

The entire second floor of Ashley and Troy Thomas’ home was gone Thursday morning. The first floor had collapsed into the basement where the family was trapped Wednesday night when a tornado stormed through Mullica Hill in Gloucester County, New Jersey.

Ashley Thomas, a teacher, said Thursday was supposed to be her first day back at school. But instead, she recounted the terror of the night before. She has two girls, 3 and 6, and is pregnant with the couple’s third child.

“Everything happened so fast,” she recalled.

The wind ripped off the second floor. The first floor collapsed on top of the crouching family. Debris hit her shoulder and back. She broke several toes but isn’t sure how.

“The house literally fell on top of us,” she said. “Pipes were bursting. We said we have to get out of here before it explodes.”

The family escaped out of a separate door. An ambulance took her to a nearby hospital.

“It took me nearly two hours to get to a hospital that’s normally a seven-minute drive. It looked like a war zone,” she said. “The ambulance had to keep slamming on his brakes because there were so many powerlines down. The tornado destroyed our neighborhood and all it took was five seconds.”

The tornado also plowed across the feed cornfields of New Jersey’s biggest dairy farm, smashing acres of the crop, toppling several large silos, and taking the roofs off buildings that house 1,400 cows.

Many cows were trapped under rubble and three died, said Marianne Eachus, who owns Wellacrest Farm with her husband, Ward.

Marianne choked up as she recalled the threat to the animals. The destruction took less than three minutes, she said, and trapped 150 cows.

The farm’s workers, dozens of neighborhood volunteers, and other farmers came to help.

“The silos were gone. The buildings were ruined,” she said. “Cows were running all over.”

When asked how many buildings were destroyed, Eachus replied: “All of them.”

On Thursday, cranes were out trying to relocate the silos, as excavators attempted to move debris.

The family has owned the farm since 1943, at a time when deliveries were made door-to-door. Now, it produces a tanker truck full of milk, about 6,000 gallons, each day.

“We are just trying to clean up,” Eachus said, looking around at the destruction.