New Castle County emergency officials were on the scene Monday night surveying the damage, and people in this community were counting their blessings.
Large trees split homes almost in half in New Castle County, where what many residents believe was a tornado spun strong winds and destruction late in the afternoon.
Debris and downed power lines, which sparked small fires, littered the Newark and Bear areas as people ran for cover.
"I just went inside that closet until it was over, and it was a matter of seconds, minutes, whatever," said Sherry Hess of Newark.
Others in Woodland Village in Bear grabbed their cell phones and started recording. One viewer snapped an image of what appears to be a distinct funnel cloud.
"I was trying to get the dogs and stuff and next thing I know it was completely black. I saw stuff blowing out back. It was pretty crazy," said Patrick Simpkins.
"As soon as we got down to the basement, you heard, 'Wooooof!' And then you heard quiet. And I told them, 'Let me come up and check and make sure we have a house still,'" said Greg Vazquez.
Just a few miles away, in Robscott Manor, at every turn there were massive toppled trees. One took out Sean Sudler's living room, a place his four kids, who are out of school, would have been watching TV or playing games. But they were out shopping with mom.
"I got the call at work. My wife had a bad signal so it was kind of chaos in the background, and I couldn't pick up what was going on. Once I finally touched base with her, she told me a tree fell through the house," Sudler said.
Down the street on Natalie Lane, a couple married for 35 years survived after a monstrous tree crashed down onto the house where they've lived for more than 30 years.
"He called me to come down. He said, 'Lay down, Peggy, get down on the floor.' Well, when I turned around to get down on the floor, here comes the tree," said Peggy Boyle.
"After all these years of marriage, she listened to me," said her husband, Tom Boyle. "Thank God for that."
Delaware State Police say at least 6 families from the Robscott Manor neighborhood are out of their homes.
The Red Cross is helping some, others are staying with family. Surprisingly, emergency officials say there were no reported injuries.
