The EF-2 tornado that Hurricane Ida spawned in Whitemarsh Township in September 2021 is the subject of a new documentary streaming free on YouTube.

Frank Flegeal, a member of the Upper Dublin Historical Commission and former high school television production teacher, produced the seven-part, 75-minute series. The documentary marks the storm that killed four people and tore a path through Upper Dublin and up Route 309 to Horsham. The tornado is believed to have originated in Whitemarsh Township, according to Montgomery County officials.

Flegeal, who has lived in Montgomery County since 1984, began the project in March after connecting with fellow commission member Stan Weinstein, as The Times Herald first reported. Weinstein's wife, Maxine, was among the four people killed when a tree fell on their Fort Washington home during the storm.

The documentary is posted on the "Upper Dublin History" YouTube channel, with final installments expected in early October. It features interviews with more than a dozen people, including former Township Manager Paul Leonard and resident Leslie DiMartile of Elliger Park.

Flegeal conducted interviews at the Upper Dublin High School television studio with help from technology education teacher John Squeri. Commission members Tom McLoughlin and Steven Hunter also assisted. Flegeal supplemented the interviews with drone footage he found by searching YouTube for "Upper Dublin Tornado 2021."

"I don't think I realized until I started working on this project how bad it was for the people," Flegeal told The Times Herald on Sept. 24.

One of the documentary's central stories is the "Chainsaw Gang," a group of volunteers who grabbed chainsaws and started clearing downed trees from neighbors' yards after the storm. Barbara Mass, a math teacher at Upper Dublin High School, took on a leadership role. Mass had never held a chainsaw. The group tended to more than 300 homes between September and December 2021, and Mass told The Times Herald on Sept. 24 that the work never really stopped.

The storm blew the roof off Upper Dublin High School and the township building across the street. The school closed for a month. Montgomery County received an average of 8.25 inches of rain, and first responders made 452 water rescues, according to a county update reported by Glenside Local.

The volunteer effort also produced the "UD Helping Hands" Facebook page, which has grown to more than 5,200 members. The page started as a way to coordinate food deliveries and tree removal and has since become a broader community resource.

The final installments of the documentary are expected on the Upper Dublin History YouTube channel in early October.