{"id":143228,"date":"2026-03-19T23:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/143228\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T23:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:07:16","slug":"lehigh-valley-residents-react-to-storm-damage-begin-cleanup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/143228\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley residents react to storm damage, begin cleanup"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a severe storm ripped through the Lehigh Valley late Monday night<\/a>, causing significant damage around the region, it wasn\u2019t long before Andy Carr\u2019s phone started ringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cStraight line winds come through and then they found the weak trees, and then they end up making this mess,\u201d Carr, the owner of Snowscapes Tree Service, said Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

His crew would spend the rest of the day removing downed trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a doozy,\u201d said Rich Mann, who was part of the crew removing one of those trees, which had fallen onto a home on Ethel Street in south Allentown.<\/p>\n

Carr said the crew would be working on at least eight more tree removals into the evening.<\/p>\n

The area of south Allentown where they were working was one of the hardest hit by the storm winds. Not far away, a roof partially collapsed at a house on Devonshire Road. Further down the road, multiple utility poles, wires and a traffic signal were toppled near the intersection with South 12th Street and Downyflake Lane.<\/p>\n

Storm damage around Lehigh Valley | PHOTOS<\/a><\/p>\n

Roads remained closed and power was still out in the area Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Josh Morrero, who lives off South Fourth Street in Allentown, told The Morning Call he woke up to find his collection of six cars damaged by fallen trees from his neighbor\u2019s yard, including a rare, vintage Chevrolet Nova, which he spent around $15,000 to restore and planned to bring to a car show in Macungie this summer.<\/p>\n

\"FallenFallen tree limbs sit on top of several cars Tuesday, March 17, 2026, in Allentown. Resident Josh Morrero said six cars were damaged, including a rare, vintage Chevrolet Nova he had planned to take to a car show. (Lindsay Weber \/ The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least [the trees] didn\u2019t hit the house,\u201d Morrero said.<\/p>\n

In Waldheim Park, a Christian residential community in Salisbury Township, near the Allentown border, the community\u2019s central playground was destroyed by falling trees.<\/p>\n

Janet Freeby, a summertime resident of Waldheim Park, drove to her part-time home Tuesday morning to assess the damage. Her home was intact, but several of her neighbors\u2019 homes had heavy damage from downed trees and branches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t believe it, the playground,\u201d Freeby said.<\/p>\n

\"DownedDowned trees litter the ground Tuesday, March 17, 2026, at Waldheim Park in Allentown. (Lindsay Weber \/ The Morning Call)<\/p>\n

Besides south Allentown, significant storm damage was reported in Lower Milford Township, Upper Saucon Township and the eastern end of Lower Macungie Township, according to Lehigh County spokesperson Daniel Sheehan. Police in Salisbury Township also reported numerous downed trees and wires.<\/p>\n

The county has been in contact with the local emergency management coordinators about damage assessments, Sheehan said.<\/p>\n

The storm had less of an impact in Northampton County, where there were no major incidents, according to Kelly Prentice, a county spokeswoman. Between 5 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday there were 395 calls to the county 911 center, roughly 100 calls above normal, she said.<\/p>\n

Still, downed trees and wires led to numerous road closures around Lower Saucon Township, police there said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a severe storm ripped through the Lehigh Valley late Monday night, causing significant damage around the region,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,153,1994,2376,5943,433,182,205,139,434,28,2183,432,2795,1133],"class_list":["post-143228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-township","tag-breaking-news","tag-coopersburg","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-lower-saucon-township","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-salisbury-township","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-upper-saucon-township","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}