Early Morning Tornado in Brooklyn Downs Trees, Kills Motorist

The National Weather Service has confirmed that the strong winds and heavy rainstorms that churned through Brooklyn Wednesday morning were in fact a tornado with winds up to 135 mph. Many people were still asleep when a tornado warning was issued at 6:20 a.m., after radar reported a strong signal in the area. The twister first touched down about 6:30 a.m., damaging trees, and then lifted off the ground, ripping the roof off of a Nissan dealership in Brooklyn.

A few minutes later the tornado touched down farther northeast, doing more damage and downing more trees before lifting off again. When it touched down a third time in a different area, the winds had died down to around 100 mph, but were still strong enough to rip the roofs off five houses and damage more trees. By the time the storm’s fury had died down, there were more than 150 trees down around the city.

The sudden extreme weather caused delays of nearly two hours at JFK airport, which got 3.47 inches of rain, and also at LaGuardia, where 2.54 inches of rain caused flooding on the roads in and around the airport. No flooding affected the runways, according to a Port Authority spokesman, but the flooding disrupted service for commuter trains and subways.

Flash flooding warnings were issued briefly in New York City and surrounding suburbs due to the storm’s sudden dumping of up to 3 inches of rain in less than an hour over Manhattan and Long Island. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that some area beaches may have to be shut down due to the storm runoff mixing with sewage.

A statement was issued by the Metro Transit Authority New Yorkers that there would be extensive delays on all subway lines due to severe flooding throughout the subway system. The Long Island Railroad suffered delays of up to 30 minutes all across the system, and the Newark Light Rail system and PATH train service from New Jersey were also disrupted.

PSEG electric company in New Jersey reported that there were about 3,000 power outages scattered throughout the area due to rain and wind. Con-Ed reported 6,000 outages in New York City and Westchester.

A heat advisory is in effect for the entire metro area of New York City, where afternoon temperatures in the 90s, combined with the humidity caused by the morning storms, caused heat indices of over 100 degrees. Officials have urged residents to cut back on their electricity consumption.

Mayor Bloomberg said that he had toured the area and had seen the tree damage, roofs missing, and churches with broken windows and roofs sheared off. He said that a woman died when her car was hit by another car after getting stuck in high water under an overpass on Staten Island. Five other people were injured throughout the day, mostly due to flying objects and falling trees.

Many trees fell on cars and homes. "I saw the tree coming down and I ran back inside," said one man who left his house when he heard his car alarm go off. "It sounded like a freight train coming through. I never thought this would happen in Brooklyn…Kansas, maybe, but not here."