After yesterday's huge storm rolled in and pummeled the city, especially Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, authorities are taking a look at the devastation which left one person dead and caused transit delays and power outages for tens of thousands. National Weather Service officials will also look at the storm data and see whether it was in fact a tornado.
The NY Times looks at the storm's path:
The worst of the storm started about 5 p.m., as a warm front from the south approached New York City. A line of thunderstorms moved through, intensifying as they reached the shore, causing winds to rotate within a small area, a characteristic that prompts a tornado warning, according to John Murray, a National Weather Service meteorologist. The storm tore through Staten Island, then Brooklyn, hitting Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant hard. It then moved into Queens, striking strongly at Middle Village, Forest Hills and Bayside.
The Daily News has details on the fatality: "Aline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was killed when a tree crushed a car she was driving on the Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Ave. in Queens, police said. Her husband, Billy Levakis, 60, was treated for minor injuries at New York Hospital Queens and released, a family friend said." Apparently the couple had just switched seats.
Trees fell all over the city—in Park Slope, it seemed like there was at least one tree down on each block, and in Queens, the downed trees caused LIRR delays (and angry commuters, with one telling the Post, "The LIRR has a lot of nerve, I'll tell you. They haven't told us anything in an hour. This is ridiculous"). Another driver on the Grand Central Parkway was stunned, "I seen the tree flying right in front of my car -- it went right on by like Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz.'"
There was a tornado in the Bronx in July...and remember the tornado of 2007 that shut down the subways?
Above are some of the photographs our readers have shared with us—thank you so much and we'll be adding more!
