After hearing yesterday's severe thunderstorm warning and receiving alarming reports of hail the size of Double Downs hitting the Throgs Neck Bridge, many of us in Brooklyn and Manhattan were ultimately left wondering, "Where's the beef?" But while many parts of NYC remained mostly clear and dry, Queens and Long Island got hammered by the brief but violent thunderstorm. Trees fell all over the tri-state area, power lines were lines were down in Queens, and as of this morning more than 16,000 homes are without electricity on Long Island. In College Point, residents said they "saw funnels coming down from the sky." Wednesday we had an earthquake, yesterday tornadoes, maybe locusts tomorrow?
Bridgeport Connecticut is under a state of emergency after reports of building collapses from the storm, and last night the mayor ordered all residents to stay in their homes! The National Weather Service has yet to determine if what happened was a thunderstorm or a tornado. 7,600 homes in Bridgeport are without power, and 25 people were injured. "Destruction … destruction. I've never seen that," one resident tells WCBS. "I've been living in the city of Bridgeport all my life and I've never seen nothing like this before in my life." Another says, "Actually, I thought the house was gonna cave in because all of a sudden the house just shake!" Some houses did cave in, and a resident whose roof collapsed told WCBS, "It stinks. It stinks really bad because we don't have a place to go tonight."
"It sounded just like a train," a Queens resident tells NY1. "And I look through the window and I see all the leaves. Everything was flying." And Long Island resident Sharon Levi said tells ABC, "I went into my parents' room, and there was a tree inside their bedroom on their dresser." (This is why kids should never wander into their parents bedrooms.)
