Powerful wind gusts from Tuesday’s thunderstorm snapped utility poles and toppled mature shade trees — including one that sliced through a house — along a narrow swath of Alsace Township.
Township officials suspect straight‑line wind caused the damage, which stretched from Beckers Road and part of Antietam Road near the top of Mount Penn down to Angora Road in Lower Alsace Township.
The storm arrived with crackling thunder and lightning shortly before 12:30 p.m., unleashing a downpour that triggered flash flooding across the Reading area. Reading firefighters rescued several people from vehicles stalled in floodwater.
Power was knocked out to about 500 Met‑Ed customers in Alsace Township, a roughly 12‑square‑mile municipality with just over 1,400 households. About 1,000 Reading customers also lost service, according to FirstEnergy’s outage website.
By Wednesday morning, Met‑Ed crews had cut the Alsace outages by about half and restored service to most Reading customers. As of 1 p.m., about 160 Alsace customers remained without power. Countywide, 868 scattered outages were still listed.
Met-Ed officials said they expected service to be restored to the remaining customers by late Wednesday.
Wanner Road sustained some of the worst damage.
Two very large trees were uprooted in front of a home in the 100 block. One crashed into the house, slicing through a bedroom, said Rick Lombardo, assistant chief of the Mount Penn Fire Company. The homeowners were not home, he said.
A tree service was contacted to remove the tree, township officials said.
That part of Alsace falls within Mount Penn Fire Company’s primary service area, Lombardo noted. It was one of many calls the company handled during and immediately after the storm.
Lombardo compared the destruction to a tornado ripping down the mountain. He said he is nearly certain straight‑line wind was responsible, pointing to trees uprooted along a single path and utility pole tops snapped cleanly.
On the crew’s way down Mount Penn, a massive fallen tree blocking Angora Road in Lower Alsace Township slowed their response. Lower Alsace public works crews used heavy equipment to clear it.
Alsace Township Manager Jan Moore said additional issues on Wanner Road included tree limbs on wires. Township public works crews conducted more storm cleanup Wednesday morning.
The family whose home was heavily damaged will not be able to live there without extensive repairs, Moore said.
Moore agreed straight‑line wind likely caused the damage, though the National Weather Service has not confirmed that.
Straight‑line winds are produced by downdrafts — intense columns of air that plunge from thunderstorm clouds, strike the ground and spread outward in powerful gusts. Unlike tornadoes, which scatter debris in multiple directions, straight‑line winds blow in a single direction.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys said the tell‑tale sign of straight‑line wind is trees and poles toppled uniformly in one direction.
A total of 1.21 inches of rain was recorded at Reading Regional Airport — the official station for Berks County — reducing the monthly deficit to just over 1 inch. The year‑to‑date deficit stood at 7.81 inches as of Wednesday morning.
Other rainfall totals included 2.12 inches in Lyons, 1.99 inches in Oley Township, 1.83 inches in Bernville and 1.46 inches in Boyertown. Southern Berks saw less, including 0.60 inches in Morgantown and 0.60 inches in Mohnton.
Roys said Berks is in for relatively dry weather through most of the weekend. Thursday could bring an afternoon shower, but temperatures will be comfortable, ranging from the upper 70s to lower 80s. Friday through the weekend should see highs in the mid‑ to upper 80s with overnight lows in the 60s.
There’s a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday, he said.