>> now at 11:00 o'clock, damage damaging storms wreaking havoc

around the delaware valley. heavy rain, countless strikes of lightning, even tornado warnings. tonight, half a million people are without power as trees and power lines are down everywhere. mother nature power caught on camera tonight. this tree came crashing down in the high winds. eyewitness cam video from paul, in the norwood section of the city. and powerful eyewitness photos have been rolling in all night. the storm hit the saint mary's carnival in william town, gloucester county. you see a lightning strike there right over attempt and after the storm had left, the carnival stands were in shambles. this is a picture of what was a funnel cake stand. we have a lot of ground to cover tonight in the wake of this storm. good evening i'm chris may. we'll check in with jessica from rome in just a moment but first the damage. it is widespread tonight from the philadelphia suburbs to the jersey shore. and we've got it covered. our team thee coverage begins with "eyewitness news" reporter david spunt he is in hard hit chester heights delaware county.

>> reporter: family members say this tree is at least 250 years old. take look at it. it came down split the home almost in half. there was a man inside. the homeowner was inside. i spoke to his son. he said his dad is rest tag local hospital tonight. >> i never seen anything like this. as bad as this. >> reporter: this is what a storm can do. in this case it only took just a few seconds to destroy most of a delaware county neighborhood. >> lasted about 20 minutes. and when it came you can hear everything hitting the roof, and i went down in the basement with my granddaughter. >> reporter: gordan mcdonned lives next door to his home in chester heights and he rushed over after her heard this tree fall and split his neighbor's home in half. the tree is at least 200 years old. here i am standing next to it. i'm 6 feet tall. >> we tried but we couldn't get it out without the chainsaws chainsaws.

>> neighbor jim told "eyewitness news" emergency crews rescued his friend. he's at a local hospital. >> pretty bad. so we'll see what happens. as long as he's okay. >> reporter: we fop dozens of trees down in delaware county. includes these on valley brook road where traffic continued to move. we found these on u.s. one and on city of a just outside philadelphia winds caused this traffic light to snap in half much like this tree in chester heights. >> i spoke to emergency crews here in the chester heights area. they tell me their biggest concern trees that may have not already snapped but could snap with just a light gust of win much that's what they'll be watching out for the rest of the night and into the morning. reporting in chester heights david spunt cbs3 "eyewitness news". "eyewitness news" in upper merion, montgomery county, where a tree crashed down on to this car on gulph road. the driver tells us he was actually on his way to pick up his child when the tree fell during heavy rain. he managed to escape though without a scratch.

four people were injured when a building partially collapsed as the storm moved through fishtown. this is from the 300 block of east alan street tonight. eyewitness says that construction crew was working on this building at the time. philadelphia police say there were only a few minor injuries. and in cherry hill, a downed tree was blocking covered bridge road. one of many similar scenes around south jersey tonight. "eyewitness news" reporter diana rocco has more of that part of the story. she's life for us in woodbury, gloucester county. diana? >> reporter: well, chris thousands throughout new jersey are still in the dark tonight and many homeowners here dealing with situations like this one. we're on elm street here. neighbors tell me the storm moved in quickly with high winds and torrential rains ripping this tree right from the ground it came down on top of this house. toppling the home opener's two cars and tonight they were force forced to evacuate due to safety reasons.

the storm moved in fast and whipping winds uprooted trees throughout gloucester county. entire blocks are in the dark. utility crews are out and thousands are still without power. >> it came with a real -- like 15 minutes it was here and gone. >> reporter: wires are down throughout woodbury at the deptford mall high winds brought down trees damaging cars park in the parking lot and stranding drivers. the storm caused a collision and this car to overturn. on elm street in woodbury this tree uprooted falling right on to the house. taking out part of the roof. the trunk fell on a cadillac park in the driveway also damaging the jeep next to it. the homeowners were forced to evacuate. neighbors say they were just getting ready to sell. >> it's horrible what happened. he lost his car and damaged his house. >> reporter: so while many in this entire area are still in the dark tonight this block didn't lose power. the tree came down damaging the house but the power lines here

are still intact. we did see a lot of utility crews out tonight. they are working hard to get power restored but it look like the clean up here may take some time. we're live in woodbury tonight i'm diana rocco cbs3 "eyewitness news". >> diana, thank you for that. we have more video and become chess that we'll be showing you tonight, but first we want to talk about the effect on transit. it is pretty significant tonight tonight. no service more affected than patco they're service has been suspended tonight as a result of an issue with pse&g substation. there were delays earlier tonight on amtrak but they have now resumed. northeast corridor between philadelphia and washington, d.c. they do say passengers need to be prepared for delays throughout the rest of the night, and keystone service is suspended right now between philadelphia and harrisburg. the other big issue, of course, power outages here are the latest numbers at 11:00 o'clock night. peco reporting 224,000 customers without power.

and they say that for some the power won't be back on until thursday. ate ac electric 189,000 outages at this hour. pse and g. 73,000. delmarva 29,000 outage. memorial night here in the weather center. kathy it's no coincidence the worst damage we've seen comes in areas that were affected by tornado warnings earlier tonight tonight. >> that's right. that is where we are focused on of course chester county and then south jersey areas like gloucester county, camden county, and even burlington county but right now the national weather service is not looking to go assess any damage because they haven't had any report of any circular damage that would indicate a tornado but nevertheless, significant damage across the region. take look at storm scan3. we're going to track the lightning. notice those power outages. they were reported very quickly after the storms moved through because these storms were so strong moving east about

50 miles an hour and when you look at all of this lightning we're talking about thousands of lightning strikes moving across the delaware valley from the time the storms started about four, 5:00 p.m. right into the evening it was just amazing. and let's take look at some of those numbers. now, we're looking at cloud to ground lightning. that is the dangerous life threatening lightning and we had some real significant numbers to talk about. now, when we look at the lightning we're talking about strikes that were in the hundreds per hour. now, between about 5:00 o'clock and 6:00 o'clock we saw some of the highest amounts of lightning across the area. here are the numbers. five and 6:15:00 lightning strike. in between 6:00 and 7:00 o'clock, over 2000 lightning strikes between 7:00 and eight 900 and then between eight and 9:00 p.m., 700. in total over 5,000 lightning strikes and if you average that out, that's about two lightning strikes every couple of seconds. so it's pretty amazeing. on storm scan3 we're looking at

this bow echo that formed through philadelphia, down through wilmington and an indication of wind damage and with this, we saw some significant wind damage possibly 70 to 80 miles an hour gusts but these were the numbers that were reported to us some really incredible numbers. glassboro gusting to 70 miles per hour. other reports in philadelphia gusting to 71. king of prussia gusting to 70 miles per hour. and in merchantville a 66 miles an hour wind gust. so really incredible numbers. many folks reporting in that pink sky in the wake of the storms courtney katz captured the green sky ahead of the storm and in the wake of the storm that pink orange sky. coming up we'll talk about why this happened and what comes next chris, in the wake of the seventy five severe weather. >> okay, kathy thanks. right now we've got more eyewitness cam video to show you from bellows lane in cherry hill where neighbors just marveled at this. a huge section of this tree came down and actually crossed that street there. but remarkablely the rest of

that tree remains standing. in philadelphia, drivers had very tough time on kelly drive tonight. look at this tree that came right down on to a car. kelly drive shut down in both directions for a time tonight. and in newark, delaware beth sent us this photograph the aftermath in the nottingham green neighborhood. she says that this huge tree that came down had stood for 100 years until tonight. and a great picture from our sports director beasley reece. he saw these power lines sagging in the aftermath of the storm tonight. this was in lumberton, new jersey. fostertown road and route 541 and incredible image there. our thanks to everyone who shared their storm pictures today. when you post yours on twitter and facebook make sure you use the hash tag cbs3 storm and you might just see your pictures here on "eyewitness news". well, when pope francis visits philadelphia in september he will be joined by some of the world's most influence al

musicians. that announce many was made today while philadelphia civic and religious leaders are at the vatican. "eyewitness news" anchor jessica dean is covering the delegation and she reports tonight from rome. >> reporter: good evening from rome. where the philadelphia delegation stayed busy today. their first full day here in it p.m. and kick the off way big announcement from the world meeting of families. >> ♪ >> reporter: on tuesday, the biggest news from the philadelphia delegation in rome was all about music. italian tenor andrea bocelli columbian super star jones and the philadelphia orchestra will headline the festival of families september 26ing. >> we've had great artists out there on the ben franklin parkway but this is very very special. >> philadelphia orchestra will not only perform with international stars it also will provide music for the papal mass on september 27th. in order to prepare the orchestra will delay opening its season until october. putting together this collage of incredible music making. so there's lot of talk about how

will the pieces work together. what will the concert flow like on saturday night? >> philadelphia arch with happen charles chaput told me he's pleased with the planning so far, and is looking forward to a visit with pope francis on wednesday. >> i will certainly have a chance to shake hands with him and tell him why we're here. >> reporter: so much of this trip is about planning. on tuesday evening chaput, mayor nutter and others met with the pontifical dawn council for the family to finalize their preparations much the group now spent so much time together in this process nutter made the council president archbishop vincent so paglia an honorary philadelphian. we will be with the delegation as they go to the weekly papal ad audience at the vatican tomorrow. exactly how much contact they'll have with pope francis well n remains to be seen. but we will be there for it. we'll find out exactly what happens and we'll bring the to you. in rome, jessica dean cbs3 "eyewitness news". meanwhile plenty of excitement here tonight at home for the philadelphia orchestra.

♪ this is the or dress' opening night summer classic series at the mann center for the performing arts. tonight's performance tchaikovsky with firework. members of the orchestra say they are thrilled with today's news from rome. >> philadelphia orchestra is part -- critically part of the civic culture of philadelphia. we're deeply honored to be inviteed to participate in the activities surrounding the papal visit and world meeting of families and we really can't wait until september. >> this is the first of six concerts this season and plenty of time for the orchestra to prepare for that papal visit. you need to get prepared as well and we've got everything you need at cbsphilly.com. just click on papal visit to see more about his hitter 86 philadelphia event. the debate over flying the confederate flag is growing tonight with political leaders

and retailers taking a stand. we'll take look whose pulling the flag and who is keeping the. next. kathy? >> if the wake of the storms we'll slowly see the skies clear and a considerable considerable cool down coming in that seven day forecast. we'll check that out coming up. and mo'ne mo'ne's next move even though she's just a teenager a basketball already wants her on the roster after college. we'll tell hugh when "eyewitness news" continues. ♪

video from cherry hill where a huge tree collapsed on power line an house during tonight's storms. smoke was even scene rising from the backyard. our thanks to will, who sent in this video. kathy will have more on what comes after the storm in just a few minutes from now. baseball coach oh night accused of ripping off his bucks county youth team. prosecutors say that sean pugh of burlington township failed to cover more than $20,000 in spences for trip to atlanta last month. each player's parents reportedly gave pugh between two and $3,000 to cover the costs of that trip. but when the throw backs team arrived at the airport they found out they had no tickets and no hotel rooms. pugh has been charged with theft

theft. >> 40 churches and political leaders came together for a vigil in tampa florida honoring the victims of last week's church massacre in south carolina. hundreds joined in prayer for the victims and families of that shooting in charleston that left nine dead. the city's mayor and tv personality judge mathis joined pastors in speaking about the shooting. the confederate flag and other issues of civil rights. in the wake of that massacre south carolina's legislature may soon consider removing the confederate flag from that state capitol's grounds. today state senator proposed a bill that would see the flag come down. this is an effort that has gained momentum after pictures showed the accused gunman in charleston holding the confederate flag. large retailers including wal*mart are moving to get rid of the so called stars and bars. but as "eyewitness news" reporter matt rivers found out some smaller stores are standing their ground. >> reporter: wal*mart won't sell confederate flag

merchandise any more neither were sears or e bail or amazon in philly geno steaks took a couldn't federal flag bumper sticker off it's motorcycle a rode latest round of businesses saying no many equate with racism and segregation. there are plenty of place that is sell that merchandise. many of the t-shirt shops here at the boardwalk in wildwood. eagles sports wear and won't display the shirt out front. >> what the flag stands for i guess back in the day is pretty offensive. >> reporter: but he is a businessman and people to by the shirts he keeps this hoodie a tribute to the confederacy tour the back of the store. we saw plenty of other shops selling the shirts one business was willing to display it out front but tried to block us from shooting it. >> as for the people walking by most said symbol was offensive but many argued that selling it isn't. i can see why it could be

offense to people. >> no matter what you sell some people fine it offensive they can keep walking. >> for others there was a difference between having a right to sell something and choosing to do the right thing. >> get rid of it altogether especially if it offends so many people. like once something offends people do the right thing. >> morally right thing. >> reporter: for or against it shirts look these at boardwalk t-shirt shops likely won't be going anywhere any time soon. matt rivers, cbs3 "eyewitness news". well the storms have passed. one thing they left us with tonight kathy were some amazeing skies. >> yeah. >> colorful have i bran skies. really up press seive. >> beautiful skies that was at the end but the beginning not so pretty a lot of damage out there and across the delaware valley we'll be picking up the pieces and cleaning up probably for the rest of the week. take a look at some of these pictures. some beautiful some fierce. this sent from laura in avalon. you can see the storm overhead. could that be a funnel cloud?

well possibly. bella took his in mt. laurel right around the time that that tornado warning was issue. you can see the lightning there and then look at this from man chow what. neal says that this was a trampoline in the backyard blown over the house into the front yard. robert sent this from manhawkin. that tree missed his car by a few inches. jenny in king of prussia not so lucky the tree smashed her car and her windshield. jenny we're sorry for that and here mt. holly after the storm you can see that beautiful sky. everyone is asking why is the sky pink or orange? well it's due to the thinning clouds behind the storm. the clouds captured the colors with longer wave lengths. we were near sunset you need those longer wave lengths like the colors of orange and red and pink that will continue to go through the atmosphere and be long enough for to us see them. that's why you have that beautiful color. and those mammatus clouds of course a sign that the storms are weakening. right now across the delaware valley much cooler.

74 in philadelphia. 68 in the poconos. 76 degrees in millville. about 20 degrees cooler than it was earlier in the wake of that front high pressure moves in. a northerly wind. dee blew skies tomorrow. with temperatures in the 80s. so the humidity is low. another nice day on thursday. temperatures in the 80s. watch a warm front. but nevertheless it will be partly sunny and pleasant. our next chance of rain will come with this area of low pressure but that will be in the form of showers on friday. right now we're not expecting any severe weather in the near future or through the seven day. overnight, clear skies the warm temperatures will remain the low 70. during the day tomorrow mostly sunny and pleasant. the high 87. as we go hour by hour, we start off warm at 72. by noon 81. but this is a dry heat with low humidity. 86 by 4:00 p.m. and for any evening activities it will be pleasant outdoors the temperature 82. on the exclusive "eyewitness weather" seven day forecast and shore cast, we'll go 85 thursday. friday a chance of showers and then after that, low pressure

system moves through. it's stays a little bit damp but cool for saturday and sun today. high temperatures only in the 70s. lower 70s down the shore. and you can see monday we warm it up to 79. tuesday 83 degrees with a chance of a few storms and down the shore 74 degrees. so guess who took a vacation week next week? >> i wonder who that could be. >> the cool week. >> well, what are you going to do. >> you lose within some you lose some some. >> lesley is here and the winds of change could be blowing for the phillies. >> could cole hamels be headed to texas. the latest on those rumors. the phillies looking to make three wins in a row happen.

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>> game two between the phillies and yankees in the bronx. fightings offense finely kicking into gear scoring 20 run in the last two games aft scoring 19 runs in the previous 10. fourth inning phillies down three-one. cameron rough first major league homer and the game is tied up. later on in the inning franco on fire. burning the yankees again. three run shot to right. this tenth homer of the season. the third in the last two games that will make it six-three. they don't call them the bronx bombers for now. chase headley and rodriguez hitting back to back homers knocking him out of the gape. later on in the inning chris young will hit a double to left. that will drive in carlos beltran. right now in the eighth game tied up at six. >> the trade deadline five weeks away phillies biggest chip right now cole hamels reportedly the

phillies and rangers are discussing a trade that would send him to texas. ranger are not op his no trade list. cole will be on the mound tomorrow for the series finale against the yankees. >> tom brady spending 10 hours inside the nfl offices appealing his suspension. he was slapped for four game band for his use of deflateed footballs. the commissioner heard his appeal no word on when a decision will be made. the rumor mill really heating up before that third draft night. sixers turned down trade offer from boston that would send nerlins nolana well and number three pick to boston for guard marcus smith and the celtics 21st round pick. no way sam hinkie will go for that one. the nba has lost a treasure. the sixers long-time stat guy harvey pollock passed he started with the philadelphia warriors in 1946. he was longest tenure employee in the nba. globally renowned as the engineer of modern day

basketball statistics. and was also the score keeper for wilt chamberlain's 100-point game. harvey is survived by his daughter lynn and son ron who work for the sixers along with four children and six

♪ ♪ (vo) you can pass down a subaru forester. (dad) she's all yours. (vo) but you get to keep the memories. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. >> it looks like attain knee dragon may become a harlem

globetrotter. 13-year-old mo'ne davis drafted by the team today. davis made her debut in baseball become the first young woman to pitch shut out in the little league world series. but basketball is her favorite sport. the globetrotters are exercising a future discovery clause to obtain the rights to mo'ne davis but only when she graduates from college. congratulation. >> wow! >> late breaking information on patco service. no morning rush hour service due to issues following the storm. they hope to have service restored by mid morning. wake up with "eyewitness news" at 4:30 for the latest on the morning commute. that's it for us. el

well, sir. after some serious consideration i'd like to put in my 15-year notice. you're quitting!? technically retiring, sir. with a little help from my state farm agent i plan to retire in 15 years. wow! you're totally blindsiding me here. who's gonna manage your accounts? this is a devastating blow i was not prepared for. well, i'm gonna finish packing my things. 15 years will really sneak up on you. jennifer with do your exit interview and adam made you a cake. red velvet. oh, thank you. i made this. take charge of your retirement. talk to a state farm agent today.

previously on elementary... excuse me. what's your prob being followed. your problem is that i know what you look like now. don't move the police are on their way. (grunts) you work for sherlock. i don't work for anyone. i'm his new partner. i'm a mentor, watson. i-i'm a teacher. i realized it wasn't you i was afraid of losing it was our relationship. then i realized i could do it again. so you dug up that girl? kitty. i told captain gregson i was okay with you coming back to the precinct. i'm even okay with, uh, kitty. i'm very glad to hear that. we're still not partners. we'll work on our own cases, of course. but if you ever need a consultation or fresh eyes on something whatever... i-i'm available. as i am to you.