Powerless Cherry Hill residents throw fridge-free block party

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (WPVI) -- Downed trees are causing major problems in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, including power outages. Residents, however, are planning to turn their no power situation into a party.

"We've been here for 22 years. This is a huge catastrophe. We have no electricity. I don't know when we'll get it back, but, as you can see, the rest of the neighborhood is pretty bad," resident Kim Boettcher said.

Neighbors in the Old Orchard section were outside and watched as the storm quickly rolled in Tuesday evening.

"It turned almost pitch black out and the wind came through like a freight train," resident Mike Kelly said.

"We saw this wall of water. I don't know what it was just coming right across. You could just see it," Boettcher said.

Transformers blew and wires came down igniting a fire on a front lawn.

"Her transformer was on fire. We're watching the fire. The cops are telling us to back up so as we back up it explodes," resident Alexa Kelly said.

On Wednesday, the sounds of generators and power saws echoed through the neighborhood as lawn crews came in to start the cleanup.

"It's a big job, but you got to start somewhere only way it's gonna get done," service worker Reuben Cotton-Lawn said.

Neighbors are getting a block party together to use up food in their refrigerators and play games that don't require power.

They are making the best of it until the power comes back on.

The Camden County Communications Center took close to 2,500 emergency calls during a six hour period - that's approaching the number they took during Hurricane Sandy.

And many say the damage is similar to what they saw during Sandy.