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Video, pics: Tornado strikes beach front in New York

In what is an extremely unusual occurrence, a twister hit Breezy Point in the Queens area causing some considerable damage.

A TORNADO SWEPT out of the sea and hit a beachfront neighborhood in New York City, hurling debris in the air, knocking out power and startling residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon.

Firefighters were still assessing the damage but an hour after it struck there were still no reported injuries and the area affected by the storm appeared small.

Videos taken by bystanders showed a funnel cloud hurling sand and debris in the air, and possibly small pieces of buildings, as it moved through the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

YouTube:

“It was crazy,” said neighborhood resident Joseph Mure, who was in the shower when the storm hit, and went outside to snap a picture of the retreating funnel. “There were a lot of sirens going off. You could see it twisting.”

Fire Department officials said there were power lines down and possibly other damage.

The tornado struck as part of a line of storms that were expected to bring damaging winds, hail, heavy rain and possibly more tornados throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast later today.

Across New York state, in Buffalo, strong winds from a broad front of thunderstorms blew roofing off of some buildings and sent bricks falling into the street.

The storm system killed four people, including a child, in Oklahoma on Friday.

‘Lifting cars off the pavement’

Radar data, video and witness reports confirmed that the cyclone that hit New York City was a tornado, National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Hofmann said.

He said an inspection team would assess the damage and before estimating the strength of the storm. Hofmann said some witnesses were reporting that the wind had been strong enough to lift cars off the pavement.

Thomas Sullivan, general manager of the Breezy Point Surf Club, said the twister ripped up cabanas and deck chairs.

“A lot of rain, a lot of wind,” he said. “It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters.”

This photo provided by Michael Abrams, shows a storm cloud over the Breezy Point area of Queens section of New York (AP Photo)

Half an hour later the weather was beautiful, but he’s had to close the club to clean up the damage.

Lizann Maher, a worker at Kennedy’s Restaurant at the edge of Jamaica Bay, said she saw a “swirling cone kind of thing with something flying in it” come down and then head back out into the water toward Brooklyn.

“It was scary. We have all glass so we kept saying, ‘Get away from the glass!’ just in case it did come back around,” she said.

The Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for Queens and Brooklyn at around 10:40 a.m. as the storm began to move through the city. Reports of storm damage in Breezy Point began coming in at around 11:15 a.m.

The storm delayed play at the US Open tennis tournament a few miles away.

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10 Comments
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    Mute Geraldine Lawlor
    Favourite Geraldine Lawlor
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    Sep 8th 2012, 8:25 PM

    It’s the end of the world as we know it ! It’s the end of the world as we know it! REM.
    Tornados in NYC
    Sunshine in Dublin
    Refer to above

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    Mute long schlong
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    Sep 9th 2012, 3:43 AM

    Drama queens. I seen bigger in a sink.

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    Mute Brendan Peters
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    Sep 8th 2012, 9:44 PM

    Hate to tell u but I don’t think tornados are that uncommon in the state of new York- not as common as in Texas or Carolina etc but sur we have had small tornados in Ireland
    Still cool to get it on camera

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    Mute Geraldine Lawlor
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    Sep 8th 2012, 9:57 PM

    It’s quite rare actually. I lived in New York for 5 yrs and never saw or heard of one .

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    Mute Gerard Long
    Favourite Gerard Long
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    Sep 9th 2012, 9:10 AM

    i was in new your this time 2 years ago, and i was flying back to dublin on the 16th sep, and there was a tornado in nyc, had to drive through brooklyn and saw loads of fallen trees and stuff, so my flight was delayed 7 hours

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Sep 8th 2012, 9:27 PM

    Bloody democrats fault. God wouldnt have done that with the republicans in charge.

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    Mute Samuel Sotoo
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    Sep 8th 2012, 9:00 PM

    I was going to commented that damn 35 min late XD

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    Mute Dec Rowe
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    Sep 9th 2012, 10:07 AM

    Bray had something similar not so long ago…

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    Mute Phil Mc Donald
    Favourite Phil Mc Donald
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    Sep 9th 2012, 10:40 AM

    That was one of Katie Taylor’s farts

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    Mute Damien Flinter
    Favourite Damien Flinter
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    Sep 9th 2012, 11:01 AM

    No need to Bray about it..

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