{"id":277982,"date":"2026-09-03T07:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/277982\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T07:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T07:40:25","slug":"mantua-township-among-hardest-hit-as-storms-sweep-philadelphia-region-force-school-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/277982\/","title":{"rendered":"Mantua Township Among Hardest Hit as Storms Sweep Philadelphia Region, Force School Closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schools in Mantua Township, Gloucester County, closed Wednesday after severe overnight storms tore through South Jersey and the wider Philadelphia region, according to CBS Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The storms knocked out power, toppled trees onto homes, and left roads blocked by fallen branches and downed lines.<\/p>\n

The Mantua School District announced all schools would be closed Wednesday, citing significant storm damage to surrounding roadways, including downed trees and power lines.<\/p>\n

Officials said they would assess cleanup progress Wednesday before deciding whether to reopen Thursday.<\/p>\n

Damage in Mantua Township<\/p>\n

CBS Philadelphia reported a tree came down directly onto a house in Mantua, with crews navigating an area where the majority of power was out. The damage was immediate and widespread.<\/p>\n

Police set up flares to guide drivers through darkened intersections where wires hung in the streets. Branches and fallen trees covered neighborhoods and portions of Route 45.<\/p>\n

FOX 29<\/a> reported that one Mantua homeowner described the sound of the wind as resembling a train coming through.<\/p>\n

That same resident told FOX 29 that the full extent of the destruction was not apparent until daylight, saying the damage was devastating to see in the morning.<\/p>\n

How the Storms Moved Through the Region<\/p>\n

The storms began pushing across southeastern Pennsylvania and into New Jersey around dinnertime Tuesday, FOX 29 reported.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service issued severe weather alerts for several New Jersey counties, including a tornado warning in Burlington County.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday morning, no tornado touchdown had been confirmed.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain, damaging winds, and flash flooding hit communities in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Delaware wasn’t spared either.<\/p>\n

A lightning strike at a house in Dover sparked a fire, FOX 29 reported.<\/p>\n

Additional School Closings and Power Outages<\/p>\n

Beyond Mantua, multiple school districts across the Philadelphia region closed Wednesday<\/a> as crews worked to clear roads. Power outages were widespread on both sides of the Delaware River.<\/p>\n

The storm forced road closures in the hardest-hit communities as utility and public works crews responded throughout the night and into the morning.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service warned that another round of potentially severe storms could reach the region Wednesday night into Thursday school dismissal changes<\/a>, adding urgency to cleanup efforts already underway.<\/p>\n

What Residents Described<\/p>\n

One Mantua-area resident who spoke to CBS Philadelphia said the storm initially seemed routine \u2014 thunder and lightning like a typical summer system. Then golf ball-sized hail began falling.<\/p>\n

Winds intensified sharply, a loud whistling sound passed through, and then the storm stopped just as quickly as it had arrived.<\/p>\n

Cleanup was still ongoing as of Wednesday morning. Fire crews responded to multiple calls through the night across the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schools in Mantua Township, Gloucester County, closed Wednesday after severe overnight storms tore through South Jersey and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-277982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277982","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=277982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}