New York:
A brief but fierce storm roared through New York City on Thursday evening, throwing down trees like sticks, paralyzing debris-strewn neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, disrupting commuter rail service and killing at least one person.
The storm and its aftereffects bore many of the hallmarks of a tornado, with the tops of trees sheared off and roofs blown off houses, but National Weather Service officials were still analyzing data to determine whether it should be classified as one.
The fast-moving storm, with winds estimated at 60 to 80 miles an hour, caused widespread damage. There were numerous reports of small fires, power failures and damage to homes, stores and vehicles.
Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, a community group in Middle Village, Queens, somberly looked over the damage as he walked through the storm-ravaged neighborhood.
"It almost brought me to tears," Mr. Holden said. "Every block, two, three trees are down into houses, smashed into cars. There's gridlock. There's debris everywhere."
The winds ripped some trees out of sidewalks and blew them 30 to 40 feet, he said, knocking out electricity as they landed on power lines.
"It wasn't the rain, but there was tremendous wind," he said. "It didn't last very long. A few minutes, it seemed like."
A woman was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle about 6:50 p.m. on Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Avenue in Queens. The police said the woman had pulled her car to the side of the parkway, possibly to avoid the storm.
The police could not immediately provide the victim's name. They said they believed she was alone, but that was not entirely clear because the tree was on the car.
Consolidated Edison reported just before 8 p.m. that more than 25,000 customers were without power in Queens, and more than 5,000 customers on Staten Island experienced power failures. Partial building collapses were reported in at least two locations in Queens -- on Roosevelt Avenue and on Yellowstone Boulevard -- and at least two in Brooklyn -- on Hamilton and Fourth Avenues.
Bus and car traffic was reported at a standstill through much of the hardest-hit areas.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg surveyed storm damage at 111th Street and 52nd Avenue in Corona, Queens, before a planned event in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He said that while there might have been some damage to school buildings, he expected all schools to be open on Friday.
"While it may be an act of God, it doesn't make it any easier for us," Mr. Bloomberg said. "The good news is that most people were safe, just annoyed, with traffic being bad, or a tree coming down in their yard."
(The amateur video below, shot on a phone camera and posted on YouTube, captures the storm as it rolls into the city).
Fallen trees disrupted Long Island Rail Road service in and out of the city, forcing officials to close down Pennsylvania Station because of overcrowding there. Commuters whose trains home were canceled flooded into nearby subway stations seeking other routes to Queens.
Sal Arena, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that in addition to Penn Station, the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station faced overcrowding if passengers tried to take the subway there for eastbound service. Long Island Rail Road trains were running infrequently, and only east of Jamaica, well into the evening.
The transportation authority also said that service was suspended on the No. 7 train, which runs aboveground in northern Queens, in both directions.
On Seventh Avenue near 34th street, dozens of people waited in a blocklong taxi line near Penn Station. Across Seventh Avenue from the station, a smaller group of people tried to hail taxis, while police officer shouted at livery-car and gypsy-cab drivers who tried to pick up passengers, instructing them to keep moving.
The last tornado in New York City hit the Bronx on July 25, when winds of 100 m.p.h. uprooted trees and road signs. The one before that was in 2007, in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
There were also reports on Thursday of trees falling on houses and a chimney collapse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, because of the storm. "All the tops of the trees were shorn off," said Georgia Davidson, a resident of First Street in Park Slope. "It looks like a tornado."
The storm seemed to hurtle down Fifth Avenue in the neighborhood, carrying lumber and trash cans along for the ride and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
Chrystal Prather, 32, a graphic novelist, was in a cafe on Fifth Avenue near Third Street when she saw the storm coming and ducked into the doorway. "The wind was so hard it was blowing the door back and forth," Ms. Prather said. "We tried to leave, but the winds pushed us back."
She watched chunks of trees and plates from an antique store fly by like something out of a movie.
Farther north, at Fifth Avenue and Baltic Street, where side streets were blocked by fallen trees, impromptu work crews sprang up to move trees and lift sheets of screw-studded plywood fence. Eve Cantler, a high school junior, led one.
"I knew this was nothing compared to Katrina," she said, referring to the hurricane, "but this is like the Park Slope miniversion. I thought I should do what I could to help out."
Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Michael Barbaro, Colin Moynihan, Andy Newman, John Otis, Fernanda Santos and Rebecca White.
The storm and its aftereffects bore many of the hallmarks of a tornado, with the tops of trees sheared off and roofs blown off houses, but National Weather Service officials were still analyzing data to determine whether it should be classified as one.
The fast-moving storm, with winds estimated at 60 to 80 miles an hour, caused widespread damage. There were numerous reports of small fires, power failures and damage to homes, stores and vehicles.
Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, a community group in Middle Village, Queens, somberly looked over the damage as he walked through the storm-ravaged neighborhood.
"It almost brought me to tears," Mr. Holden said. "Every block, two, three trees are down into houses, smashed into cars. There's gridlock. There's debris everywhere."
The winds ripped some trees out of sidewalks and blew them 30 to 40 feet, he said, knocking out electricity as they landed on power lines.
"It wasn't the rain, but there was tremendous wind," he said. "It didn't last very long. A few minutes, it seemed like."
A woman was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle about 6:50 p.m. on Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Avenue in Queens. The police said the woman had pulled her car to the side of the parkway, possibly to avoid the storm.
The police could not immediately provide the victim's name. They said they believed she was alone, but that was not entirely clear because the tree was on the car.
Consolidated Edison reported just before 8 p.m. that more than 25,000 customers were without power in Queens, and more than 5,000 customers on Staten Island experienced power failures. Partial building collapses were reported in at least two locations in Queens -- on Roosevelt Avenue and on Yellowstone Boulevard -- and at least two in Brooklyn -- on Hamilton and Fourth Avenues.
Bus and car traffic was reported at a standstill through much of the hardest-hit areas.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg surveyed storm damage at 111th Street and 52nd Avenue in Corona, Queens, before a planned event in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He said that while there might have been some damage to school buildings, he expected all schools to be open on Friday.
"While it may be an act of God, it doesn't make it any easier for us," Mr. Bloomberg said. "The good news is that most people were safe, just annoyed, with traffic being bad, or a tree coming down in their yard."
(The amateur video below, shot on a phone camera and posted on YouTube, captures the storm as it rolls into the city).
Fallen trees disrupted Long Island Rail Road service in and out of the city, forcing officials to close down Pennsylvania Station because of overcrowding there. Commuters whose trains home were canceled flooded into nearby subway stations seeking other routes to Queens.
Sal Arena, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that in addition to Penn Station, the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road station faced overcrowding if passengers tried to take the subway there for eastbound service. Long Island Rail Road trains were running infrequently, and only east of Jamaica, well into the evening.
The transportation authority also said that service was suspended on the No. 7 train, which runs aboveground in northern Queens, in both directions.
On Seventh Avenue near 34th street, dozens of people waited in a blocklong taxi line near Penn Station. Across Seventh Avenue from the station, a smaller group of people tried to hail taxis, while police officer shouted at livery-car and gypsy-cab drivers who tried to pick up passengers, instructing them to keep moving.
The last tornado in New York City hit the Bronx on July 25, when winds of 100 m.p.h. uprooted trees and road signs. The one before that was in 2007, in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
There were also reports on Thursday of trees falling on houses and a chimney collapse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, because of the storm. "All the tops of the trees were shorn off," said Georgia Davidson, a resident of First Street in Park Slope. "It looks like a tornado."
The storm seemed to hurtle down Fifth Avenue in the neighborhood, carrying lumber and trash cans along for the ride and leaving a path of destruction in its wake.
Chrystal Prather, 32, a graphic novelist, was in a cafe on Fifth Avenue near Third Street when she saw the storm coming and ducked into the doorway. "The wind was so hard it was blowing the door back and forth," Ms. Prather said. "We tried to leave, but the winds pushed us back."
She watched chunks of trees and plates from an antique store fly by like something out of a movie.
Farther north, at Fifth Avenue and Baltic Street, where side streets were blocked by fallen trees, impromptu work crews sprang up to move trees and lift sheets of screw-studded plywood fence. Eve Cantler, a high school junior, led one.
"I knew this was nothing compared to Katrina," she said, referring to the hurricane, "but this is like the Park Slope miniversion. I thought I should do what I could to help out."
Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Michael Barbaro, Colin Moynihan, Andy Newman, John Otis, Fernanda Santos and Rebecca White.
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