June Doran and her family settled in for a relaxing late Saturday afternoon at their home in Penn Forest Streams.

Mother Nature had other plans.

“We heard the storm blowing in, and we thought it was just going to be a normal thunderstorm,” Doran said. “So we didn’t take any precautions like closing windows or sliding doors or anything.”

But a whirring noise - almost like the sound of a running treadmill - took Doran’s attention away from the movie she was watching.

“The kids started running around upstairs, yelling, ‘Evacuate! Close all the windows!,” Doran said.

At that point, she said, her 9-year-old swore he saw something that looked like a tornado in their Penn Forest Township development.

Patio chairs blew across the Dorans’ deck, as trees cracked, broke and fell.

When it was all said and done about an hour later, Doran could see her neighbor’s home from her own.

“We were never able to see it because of all the trees,” she said.

The winds claimed at least 50% of the trees in her area - some were older, but many were strong and sturdy.

Doran said a fallen tree blocked the development’s main road, and other trees fell on residents’ driveways.

Others in the development also contacted the Times News, saying that they believed a tornado had struck.

“There were no tornadoes in the area but we did receive a couple of damage reports,” said Alex Staarmann, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

What was to blame, he said, were high winds.

“We have wind gusts estimated at 60 miles per hour via radar,” he said.

A roof was damaged in Lehighton, Staarmann said, and power lines were downed in Summit Hill. Staarmann said that Route 902 from White Bear Drive to Mahoning Valley Drive was closed due to fallen debris.

“There were more damage reports further south in places like Berks County,” he said.