Neighbors helping neighbors after possible tornado damages homes in Milford

The day after a possible tornado hit the Cedar Neck area of Milford, Donna Watson was barbecuing in her Mills Road driveway.

A dozen or so people were milling around, having done most of the work of cleaning up debris that morning.

"Everybody's down here helping, so I just thought I should feed them," Watson said.

The attitude was similar everywhere on Mills and Shockley roads July 2, where neighbors were helping neighbors cut up downed trees, pick up debris and make repairs, although professionals were the ones working on a handful of significantly damaged roofs.

The National Weather Service recorded a possible tornado in the area Thursday, noting “significant tree damage with some trees into houses.” Officials are in the area investigating Friday and said they would likely make a determination on whether a tornado occurred later in the evening. 

UPDATE:National Weather Service confirms tornado hit south of Harrington Thursday 

Watson wasn't home when the storm hit at about 5 p.m., but her son, Jordan Watson, was down the street at another relative's pool. He received a tornado alert on his phone.

"We had our 2-year-old and our 6-week-old and we jumped in our car, but when we left the driveway, there was a tornado right in the middle of the field across the street," he said.

Jordan and his family took shelter in his grandparents' basement.

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"It sounded like a train," he said. "Next thing you know, it was over."

Outside, a 38-foot race car trailer had tipped over, as well as a smaller trailer. Neighbors' roofs had been torn off. Much of the Watson and Mills family live on Mills Road, where Jordan's aunt, Michelle Mills, teaches riding lessons at Crooked Fence Farm.

Mills said she was making a cup of coffee late Thursday afternoon when she looked outside and saw the race car trailer seemingly float off the ground. 

She grabbed her dogs and got in the bathtub as the potential tornado caused her windows to burst, blew away her two chickens and chicken coop, destroyed a hay shed and caused significant damage to a garage.

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Mills said she didn't get a tornado warning on her phone until after the storm passed.

She shed tears as she showed a reporter her pasture, where her two horses and one cow were at the time. They escaped their enclosure during the storm and were unharmed.

Not 20 minutes after the storm passed, Mills said, she had about 15 teens, many of them her riding students, show up to help clean up. They were able to wrangle the horses and cow, but the chickens are still missing.

Just a bit further north, on Shockley Road, the potential tornado missed Peggy Conlan's house but carried away her shed and dropped it a few yards away, strewing the contents throughout her yard and her neighbor's.

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Next door at Bob Richard's house, the wind pulled his treasured Japanese black pine tree out of the ground and over his camper. It also damaged his home.

"The wind was so strong it just pushed in the side of the house," he said. The siding was dented where two sections of the roof meet, leaving a hole over his guest bathroom.

On the western side of Milford, a tree fell into a mobile home on Route 13 near Harrington.

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Shannon Marvel McNaught covers Sussex County and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com.