SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) — The tornado that wreaked havoc in Westmoreland County first touched down in Sewickley Township.

KDKA’s Mary Robb Jackson traveled to the General Braddock Boulevard neighborhood.

“I seen the sky and the rain and I knew that something bad was going to happen,” Robyn Palfey, a tornado survivor, said.

She fled to the basement with her son and daughter, ages 10 and 12. While winds ripped apart her home, she held her children close.

“I was on top of them,” she said. “I was just praying, praying that we were going to be okay.”

The family lost everything.

Meantime, crews are dealing with downed power lines, trees and tons of debris. At least 30 homes in Hempfield are unlivable and a dozen are completely gone.

Officials estimate the cleanup will take weeks.

“I don’t know how we made it out – I don’t,” Palfey said. “I don’t know how made it out of there alive.”

RELATED LINKS:
Red Cross
Salvation Army

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