Yesterday's intense thunderstorm brought the fiery wrath of Jupiter's judgement down upon decadent Babylon hail, lightning, and flash floods through parts of Brooklyn and Queens, wreaking havoc on evening commutes. But we hope your trip home wasn't as harrowing as Sister Claudia Bradshaw's, a nun whose car got completely submerged under a Queens overpass.
Bradshaw, 86, and her two friends were driving on Cooper Avenue when she approached what she thought was "just a puddle" under the 76th Street overpass. “It turned out to be a lake," says her friend, 81-year-old Joseph Laurence. "We floated for a while and then the water started pouring in through the air-conditioner vents. It was up to our shoulders in no time." Bradshaw tells the Daily News, "We were praying, believe me. We thought we were going to drown and then all of sudden they were there to save us. God bless them."
"They" were angels in disguised in human form as FDNY EMTs Marilyn Arroyo and Jimmy Guailacela, who, with the help of tow truck operator Danny Ciancio, rescued the nun and her friends moments before water fully submerged the vehicle. The News has excellent photos of the rescue, and below you'll find more flash flood and thunderstorm porn, including monster hail thrashing Middle Village, and an NYPD vehicle bravely plowing through deep floodwater in Brooklyn.
Here's crazy hail in Brooklyn:
Gigantic hail and lightning in Queens:
And, most terrifying of all, flooding paralyzing a Burger King in Brooklyn:
