New York hit by a TORNADO: One person killed and a trail of destruction left as 100mph winds rip through city

By Daily Mail Reporter


Smashed: Residents in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree


At least one person has been killed after a tornado-like storm ripped through New York.

The sky turned black and tornado-like squalls torn through the city stranding ten of thousands of commuters.


Officials suspended access to overcrowded Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan, where people were locked shoulder to shoulder after fallen trees forced a halt to commuter rail traffic.


A householder looks at a tree that fell on an SUV on 11th Street between 5th and 4th Avenues in the Brooklyn borough of New York City


Storm damage: A man steps through fallen branches in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York


Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens were hit hardest by the storm. Locals used axes to hack at trees that in some cases had crashed across stairways and front porches, trapping people inside homes.

Winds reached up to 100mph shut down roads and power lines leaving 70,000 customers without power.

The city's 911 switchboards were inundated with calls of injuries, a Fire Department spokesman said. He said several firefighters responded to scenes in Queens and Brooklyn where motorists were stuck in their vehicles after trees fell on them.

'It was like Iraq's the front line,' one man told NY1, the city's all-news television station.


Tragedy: Aline Levakis (left) was killed when a tree crashed onto her car in a violent storm in New York last night. She had just switched seats with her husband, Billy (right)


'It felt like the Wizard of Oz,' a woman told the station.

Others described whooshing noises, train-like rumblings and the sounds of loud cracks as lightning struck and trees snapped.

'I actually started to pray. I was very frightened,' Antonia Ritorto of Staten Island's Tottenville neighbourhood said.

'It came so quickly. The sky got so dark. The rain was sideways and the water was coming in through the windows.'

Police said Aline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, died when a tree crushed a car she was driving on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens.

It is believed she and her husband, Billy, 60, had switched seats moments before the accident.
He is today being treated at New York Hospital Queens.

According to the National Weather Service, tornado warnings for Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island were called off at about 6pm.

While a tornado was never officially declared, a trained weather spotter reported seeing a funnel cloud near Staten Island.


Home help: Neighbours clear fallen trees and debris off of cars on 11th Street between 5th and 4th Avenues in Brooklyn after the fierce storm


Damage: Tree limbs lies fallen against a house on 11th Street between 5th and 4th Avenues


Downed trees and other debris lie on a street in Park Slope following a late afternoon storm


Brandon Smith, a meteorologist with the weather service, said experts on Friday would determine if a tornado did hit by looking at debris.

'The way the damage lies on the ground can give you a lot of hints,' he said.


'It was like the wizard of Oz': the storm is just the latest instance of weird weather to hit New York. In February the city registered its heaviest snowfall and this summer was the hottest on record



Firefighters clean fallen trees on 6th Avenue in the Brooklyn borough of New York City

source: dailymail