Brief but strong storm sweeps through NYC; 1 dead

Residents in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree, Thursday0. A brief but severe storm has swept through New York City, uprooting trees and damaging cars. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Brief but strong storm sweeps through NYC; 1 dead

CHARLES SHEEHAN,Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A fast-moving storm packing winds of up to 100 mph ripped through the city Thursday, knocking down trees and power lines, tearing off roofs in one Brooklyn neighborhood and leaving one person dead.

The person was killed when a tree fell on a car in Queens, fire officials said. Numerous minor injuries were reported elsewhere.

The storm hit just after 5 p.m., when the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Staten Island. Shortly afterward, warnings were issued for Brooklyn and Queens.

"A huge tree limb, like 25 feet long, flew right up the street, up the hill and stopped in the middle of the air 50 feet up in this intersection and started spinning," said Steve Carlisle, 54. "It was like a poltergeist."

"Then all the garbage cans went up in the air and this spinning tree hits one of them like it was a bat on a ball. The can was launched way, way over there," he said, pointing at a building about 120 feet away where a metal garbage can lay flattened.

Townsend Davis, 47, stood outside of his home on Sterling Place in Brooklyn. A 40-foot tree that was uprooted from the sidewalk and crushed two cars still had a sign in the soil around its roots that read "Respect the trees."

"Someone up there wasn't listening," Davis said. "I'm just glad it fell that way, as bad as I feel for the owners of that car, because if it fell this way, my house wouldn't be here."

Davis' children and wife were in the home when the storm hit.

"All of a sudden, we saw this dark cloud, and it was moving. I said 'Let's go in!'" said Stephen Wylie, who was working in a backyard on Quincy Street, in Brooklyn.

Within seconds, the front door started lashing back and forth. Trees branches were falling and trees came flying from other yards, Wylie said.

"They smashed the whole backyard, a gazebo there. Then half the roof was torn off — eight layers of it" — leaving only a layer of wood, he said.

Angela Bartolotta, 25, was in class at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, when the wind began to howl and the lights flickered.

"Then the windows blew in," Bartolotta said. "Everybody got down. We thought the tree outside was going to come in."

Brooklyn resident Steven Harris says seven or eight rooftops blew off on his street. He says trees fell and knocked down power lines.

In the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, witnesses say the sky went pitch black at about 5:30 p.m. Trees started waving around like blades of grass. Large branches snapped and hit cars, smashing windshields.

The Long Island Rail Road said service was temporarily suspended between Penn Station and Jamaica because of fallen trees. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains were running with delays.

NEW YORK (AP) — A fast-moving storm packing winds of up to 100 mph ripped through the city Thursday, knocking down trees and power lines, tearing off roofs in one Brooklyn neighborhood and leaving one person dead.

The person was killed when a tree fell on a car in Queens, fire officials said. Numerous minor injuries were reported elsewhere.

The storm hit just after 5 p.m., when the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Staten Island. Shortly afterward, warnings were issued for Brooklyn and Queens.

"A huge tree limb, like 25 feet long, flew right up the street, up the hill and stopped in the middle of the air 50 feet up in this intersection and started spinning," said Steve Carlisle, 54. "It was like a poltergeist."

"Then all the garbage cans went up in the air and this spinning tree hits one of them like it was a bat on a ball. The can was launched way, way over there," he said, pointing at a building about 120 feet away where a metal garbage can lay flattened.

Townsend Davis, 47, stood outside of his home on Sterling Place in Brooklyn. A 40-foot tree that was uprooted from the sidewalk and crushed two cars still had a sign in the soil around its roots that read "Respect the trees."

"Someone up there wasn't listening," Davis said. "I'm just glad it fell that way, as bad as I feel for the owners of that car, because if it fell this way, my house wouldn't be here."

Davis' children and wife were in the home when the storm hit.

"All of a sudden, we saw this dark cloud, and it was moving. I said 'Let's go in!'" said Stephen Wylie, who was working in a backyard on Quincy Street, in Brooklyn.

Within seconds, the front door started lashing back and forth. Trees branches were falling and trees came flying from other yards, Wylie said.

"They smashed the whole backyard, a gazebo there. Then half the roof was torn off — eight layers of it" — leaving only a layer of wood, he said.

Angela Bartolotta, 25, was in class at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, when the wind began to howl and the lights flickered.

"Then the windows blew in," Bartolotta said. "Everybody got down. We thought the tree outside was going to come in."

Brooklyn resident Steven Harris says seven or eight rooftops blew off on his street. He says trees fell and knocked down power lines.

In the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, witnesses say the sky went pitch black at about 5:30 p.m. Trees started waving around like blades of grass. Large branches snapped and hit cars, smashing windshields.

The Long Island Rail Road said service was temporarily suspended between Penn Station and Jamaica because of fallen trees. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains were running with delays.