National Weather Service confirms tornado in New Castle County

NEW CASTLE, Del. (WPVI) -- The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF-0 tornado touched down in New Castle County, Delaware when storms tore through the area Thursday night.

The tornado hit Minquedale, NWS says. But many other areas of the county saw serious damage.

Residents saw what looked to be a funnel cloud over New Castle Avenue during the height of the storm.

Fire crews worked to keep up with calls of trees down and reports of walls collapsing.

A mobile home village in the area was hit particularly hard, and the people who live there are only beginning assess the damage.

The back window of a car was shattered. The manager of the village believes cinder blocks flew from a nearby mobile home that was moved in the storm, and damaged the vehicle.

The Office of Emergency Management for New Castle County was on the scene Friday morning. OEM officials were taking pictures, which they will then send to National Weather Service officials to figure out exactly what came through Delaware last night.

"It came through, just ripped this roof off. Peeled it back like a soda can. Some of it ended up all through New Castle Avenue, and some of it ended up on this trailer," said Chris Coviello, owner of the mobile home village.

New Castle resident Eric Howard tells us, "Our car is destroyed. You know, our whole outside is destroyed. Our roof is actually down there on the trailer."

Howard says it sounded like lightning, but it looked and felt closer than ever before. When he walked out he found his neighbor tangled in wire.

He explains, "My neighbor over here, one of the wires ... was actually wrapped around him, because he was actually standing outside waiting for an order to come."

By mid-morning crews lined up to remove fallen trees and fix affected wires. It could take several days to clean up and get residents back in their homes.

Delmarva Power reports less than a thousand are without power. The Red Cross is assisting people at a shelter at a local middle school.