Thunderstorms, hail, flooding -- and a tornado -- have hit the region hard, said the National Weather Service.
By Saturday afternoon, the weather was finally settling down.
But residents of the Philadelphia region were left with a post-storm mess to clean up.
Power crews were still hard at work restoring electricity to many people.
Gloucester County, N.J., where a tornado touched down in East Greenwich township, may have sustained the most damage.
The storms also generated a lot of lightning, some strikes sparking fires. One of the worst was in Chester County, at a Downingtown furniture store, where a five-alarm fire raged for hours after a lightning bolt hit early Saturday morning.
There was so much rain in such a short amount of time that flash flooding created dangerous conditions.
A five-member family, including four children, had to be rescued from high waters in Camden, N.J., after they were trapped in their car.
The family waded through knee-high water as firefighters helped the family to safety. In all, at least four cars were trapped on the flooded-out street where the family was trapped.