Chainsaws buzzed as a steady rain fell on crews still hard at work this afternoon to clear the aftermath of a tornado that touched down yesterday in a Lancaster County neighborhood where fresh piles of wood now sit stacked near homes spared from destruction.

Uprooted trees still dominate the landscape in the development where a fleet of tree trimmer bucket trucks lines the winding streets now littered with leaves and strewn with scattered piles of wood chips.

The smooth, pale wood of a newly-placed utility pole contrasts the dark bark of trees nearby snapped in half by the 80 to 100-mph-winds, a splintered display of the force of the overnight storm.

Without warning, the tornado touched down not once, but twice shortly before 12:30 a.m., skipping its way from an industrial complex on Running Pump Road to homes set on a hill among high-topped trees. Remarkably, no one was injured.

“No one reported injuries, which is actually miraculous considering this happened in the middle of the night,” said Lt. Tammy Marsh, public information officer for the East Hempfield Township Police Department.

The National Weather Service confirmed and classified the tornado an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale after meteorologists from the NWS surveyed damage on the ground and from the air aboard a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter.

“The primary damage that we looked at were a number of downed trees and also the damage to the industrial warehouse just south of Route 30,” said Matt Steinbugl, a meteorologist with the NWS at State College who was the lead inspector for the agency of the impacted area.

A large trampoline toppled by the storm stood on its side, pressed against a backyard fence along Nissley Road, where just up the street a worker removed large limbs from the roof of a house.

Over 10,000 people throughout the county lost power as a result of the storm.

“We called crews in very early in the morning to start restorations and also brought additional crews from other regions of our service center to help out,” said Jessica Long, the PPL Electric regional affairs director for Lancaster County. “The extra employees allowed us to have all but a handful of customers restored by dinnertime Wednesday.”

Over on Hermosa Drive today, Comcast technician Mark Yost climbed a ladder in a cool rain to replace cable that was torn down by the wind.