‘Two tornadoes struck NYC during storm’

September 18, 2010 10:29 am | Updated November 28, 2021 09:41 pm IST - NEW YORK

Residents in the Brooklyn borough of New York circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree. A brief but severe storm swept through New York City on Thursday. File photo

Residents in the Brooklyn borough of New York circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree. A brief but severe storm swept through New York City on Thursday. File photo

The storm that churned through New York City spawned two destructive tornadoes and a fierce microburst with wind speeds up to 200 kmph that barrelled across a large swath of Brooklyn and Queens, authorities said Friday.

The storm on Thursday evening toppled trees, peeled away roofs and killed a woman in a car who had just swapped seats with her husband.

The fury of wind and rain that pummelled the area was New York City’s ninth and tenth tornado since 1950, the National Weather Service said Friday night.

Kyle Struckmann, a meteorologist with the agency, said it was amazing that only one person died.

“It’s practically a miracle considering the population that was affected by this,” he said.

One of the tornadoes struck Brooklyn about 5-33 p.m. local time Thursday, with winds up to 128 kmph, and carved its way northeast from the Park Slope section, Mr. Struckmann said. The second one hit Queens at 5-42 p.m. local time, with winds up to 160 kmph, travelling 6.4 kilometers.

It was that second twister that snapped trees and scattered them like bowling pins, downing power lines and crushing vehicles, including a car in Queens where Iline Levakis was killed, according to the National Weather Service. She was in the parked car with her husband, Billy Levakis. The couple, from Pennsylvania, had just switched seats in the car, said a former business partner, Peter Markos. He survived.

But it was the macroburst that packed the biggest punch with its winds up to 200 kmph, said Brian Ciemnecki, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Stretching 12 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, the macroburst started in the Middle Village section of Queens and ended in Forest Hills. A macroburst is an intense gust of wind that pours down from a storm.

“The large majority of damage was associated with the macroburst,” Mr. Ciemnecki said.

Officials initially had reported that a microburst hit the city but later corrected that to say it was a macroburst, because it was more than 4 kilometres) long.

Strong winds caused storm damage on Staten Island, authorities said.

The storm was part of a line that rippled across much of the Northeast before completing its run in New York City during the Thursday evening rush hour in a matter of minutes. It caught nearly everyone off guard, including commuters heading home and parents picking up children from after-school activities.

“There are lots of stories of people who came very close to being hit by a big tree and killed, but fortunately there was only one,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. “And that one was really tragic.”

Investigators on Friday had mapped out the width and intensity of the storm to determine whether a tornado touched down, said Mr. Struckmann. The probe included surveying the aftermath by helicopter.

Stunned residents sifted through the debris Friday, and utility crews worked to restore power in blacked-out neighbourhoods. The number of customers without power peaked at 37,000, but that gradually improved Friday. About 14,000 customers, mostly in Queens, had no power late Friday.

Consolidated Edison said it expects to restore power to most customers by Saturday night, and all service by Sunday night.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert Limandri said the city had received more than 60 reports of buildings with possible structural damage. Officials had ordered residents out of some of the worst-hit homes in Brooklyn.

The city parks department said it was still assessing the tree damage and cautioned that cleanup would likely go on for days. The parks commissioner warned pedestrians to be careful walking under trees that might have broken branches.

All over the city, witnesses compared stories of what they had seen - street signs uprooted, storefront windows blown out, thick tree trunks snapped in half, a parked van lifted a foot into the air.

The line of storms began its work to the west. At least seven tornadoes were confirmed in Ohio, where storms flipped mobile homes, injured several people and damaged part of an Ohio State University campus. A small tornado also touched down in southern New Jersey, knocking over trees and damaging two houses.

Eight twisters have hit New York City since 1950, the National Weather Service said. The last was in July, a small one that whirled through the Bronx during a thunderstorm that left thousands without power. In 2007, a tornado with winds as high as 217 kmph touched down in Staten Island and Brooklyn, where it damaged homes and sucked the roof off a car dealership.

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