No serious injuries were reported when a twister hit a beachfront neighbourhood Saturday on the edge of New York City and a second, stronger tornado followed moments later about 16 km away. Residents got advance notice but still the storm took people by surprise.
“I was showing videos of tornadoes to my four-year-old on my phone, and two minutes later, it hit,” said Breezy Point neighbourhood resident Peter Maloney. “Just like they always say, it sounded like a train.”
The unsettled weather, part of a cold front that crossed over the Eastern Seaboard, toppled trees and power lines and damaged buildings as it passed through. Wind gusts reached 70 mph in some places.
Tornado-like funnel clouds were reported in Fairfax County, Va., and in Prince George’s County, Md., but had not been confirmed by Saturday evening, meteorologist Andy Woodcock of the National Weather Service said.
One person suffered minor injuries during a partial stage collapse at the Rosslyn Jazz Festival in Arlington County, Va., and six people were evacuated from a Washington apartment building when a tree fell on it. Fairfax County officials reported three home cave-ins because of downed trees, a water rescue in the Potomac River and dozens of electrical wires down.
By Sunday morning, about 15,000 customers were without electricity in northern Virginia, according to Dominion Virginia Power. Pepco reported outages to more than 5,000 customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland’s Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. BGE reported about 1,500 outages, most in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties.
In New York City, videos taken by bystanders showed a funnel sucking up water, then sand, and then small pieces of buildings as the first tornado moved through the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.
At the Breezy Point Surf Club, it ripped the roofs off rows of cabanas, scattered deck chairs and left a heavy metal barbecue and propane tank sitting in the middle of a softball field, at least 100 yards from any home.
“It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters,” said the club’s general manager, Thomas Sullivan.
In the storm’s wake, broken flower pots, knocked-down fences and smashed windows littered the community of seaside bungalows. Half an hour later, the weather was beautiful, but Sullivan had to close the club to clean up the damage.
The roof of Bob O’Hara’s cabana was torn off, leaving tubes of sunscreen, broken beer bottles and an old TV set exposed to the elements.
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