Valley residents left on cleanup duty following weekend storm

PHOENIX - While Saturday night's storms were a welcome relief to many in the Valley, it also means cleanup time for others this morning.

Neighbors tell us they had no idea what happened when they woke up this morning. A tree was struck by lightning last night and it went into someone's back yard. The wall collapsed and the debris went about 50 yards, damaging a fence.

"[There was a] huge flash of lightning," said Pat Luma. "Our smoke detector went off."

"I heard this loud boom right above my house," said Humberto Meza. "And I said, 'What the hell.'"

It was a lightning strike heard in a west Valley neighborhood near 83rd Ave. and Thomas.

"It scared me," Meza said. "I've never experienced something like that."

The lightning strike split the tree. Neighbors said it sounded like an explosion, causing damage and missing the home behind it. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

"It started raining hard for 10 minutes and then it stopped," Meza said. "And then it didn't rain for the rest of the night. It was just one big strike."