Hundreds Of Trees Damaged After Last Night's Storm

Last night's storm tore through the Upper West Side and Central Park, tearing trees out of the ground and throwing them across streets and onto cars. Our weather guru Joe Schumacher said, "Within the larger area of rain there was a smaller, intense area that crossed the Hudson and Upper West Side and then went up through Central Park and Harlem before heading into the Bronx."

Which matches the damage, much of it in Riverside and Central Parks. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said it was a "path of devastation from Riverside Park through Central Park into East Harlem and through Randalls Island." He also said, "The cleanup effort will take days, perhaps weeks to get it fully cleaned up. Central Park Conservancy is bringing in emergency crews, private contractors. The parks department has all five boroughs working. We will assess what's going on in the other boroughs, and if necessary we'll bring in crews from other boroughs into Manhattan where damage appears to be the worst."

However, it was not a tornado, though gusts were up to 80 mph: A National Weather Service meteorologist told the Post, "Evidence we have, looking at our radar data, is that there were no tornado signatures. It was straight line winds."

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By Jen Chung in News on August 19, 2009 5:47 PM

Comments [rss]

Gwinny

Weirdly, we didn't get any of this in West Harlem... I heard thunder, but it didn't rain or anything.

movi

Oh, that's right! It rained. I forgot.

ed_Extinct

We have had so much rain this season it's very possible a strong gust (60mph+) could topple a large tree.

Dwayne Hoover

It definitely wasn't a derecho. There was no organized squall line/bow echo associated with the storm.

I still don't understand the lightning rod thing. Why would anyone erect lightning rods in a park? Unless you put one on top of every tree, they wouldn't do much of anything.

Dead Himmler

I know. The lightning rod thing in the trees must have been the dumbest idea I have ever heard in my entire life.

Wza

I was in East Harlem today....crazy how much tree damage was up there.

Nyctini11

Do they have lightning poles scattered through out the park anywhere? With that many trees and all this apparent damage, wouldn't that be a smart move?

macondo

That was a fair question, Nyctini11. Some people, unfortunately, just like to be nasty and critical, hiding behind their screens and commenting rudely in ways they would hopefully not in person.

Wobbie

Nyctini11

FAIL...

The article is clearly talking about the winds causing the damage to the trees... where did you see lightning come into play here? Last time I checked, lightening rods won't do squat to combat wind damage...

Nyctini11

Fail??? Because i asked a question? Failure comes to those who don't inquire.

Now why i was asking this is because co-workers who live near the park mentioned there were a lot of lightning strikes in the park, presumably going for the highest target, within it's strike zone. i was wondering and if they had that type of thing in use and if not, then why?

Dead Himmler

Failed again by attempting to rationize a failed question.

Nyctini11

Can both of you do us all a favor and NOT procreate. After some internet searching, since clearly the 2 of you have nothing better to do but be rude, i am correct, this is something used throughout parks, thanks for nothing douche bags, try reading a book a sometime it may get you further in life the berating people for no good reasons.