New York, NY - 1 Person Killed in Fast-Moving Storm Packing 100-mph Winds

New York, NY - A fast-moving storm packing 100 mph winds triggered tornado warnings Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens and killed at least one person.

The storm slammed the city at 5:20 p.m. prompting the National Weather Service to issue its first tornado warning for Staten Island.

Hundreds of trees were toppled in Brooklyn and Queens, trapping at least two people inside crushed cars. Officials said one person was killed in Queens.

Con Edison said electrical wires were down across the city and there were hundreds of power failures.

“It’s like a war zone out here,” said Gene King, surveying her Forest Hills, Queens, neighborhood. “Trees are down, some houses have come apart.”

King said the front windows of a Key Food store on Queens and Yellowstone Blvds. “imploded” as the storm came through, and an air-conditioning unit atop a Sports Authority store on Woodhaven Blvd. was dismantled.

Winds on Staten Island topped out at 70 mph, but hit 100 mph as the swirling weather front reached Great Neck, L.I., said Adrienne Leptich a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. There were reports of trees uprooted across Brooklyn and hail the size of nickels falling around the city.

Twitter users posted pictures of pulverized sidewalks and a metal pole that impaled the side of a brick building. The Long Island Rail Road suspended all service east of Jamaica station because of down trees on the tracks, said spokesman Sal Arena.

Tornado warning were issued for Brooklyn at 5:24 p.m. and for Queens at 5:36 p.m., Leptich said. While there were scattered reports of tornados touching down in the area, Leptich said nothing had been confirmed.

But it certainly appeared a twister had hop-scotched across the city, leaving a swath of damage. In Park Slope, Brooklyn, construction scaffolding at a building near Grand Army Plaza collapsed on a fruit stand and firefighters from Squad 1 had to help free a woman trapped in her car at Union St. at Eighth Ave.

http://www.vosizneias.com/64373/2010/09/16/new-york-ny-tornado-warning-for-brooklyn-queens-and-staten-island/