‘Tornado-Like’ Storm Rips Through NYC Leaving at Least One Dead

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.”

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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.

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[It] 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.