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Subscribe to RSSAs powerful storms, with lightning and high winds, ripped through the Northeast, the Twittersphere thundered with users uploading pictures. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
Severe winds knocked down trees in areas from Michigan to Georgia on Friday, a day after a line of severe storms tore through parts of the Midwest and Northeast, killing two people, cutting power to tens of thousands and spawning a tornado that damaged property in Elmira, N.Y.
A second tornado touched down near Montrose, Pa., on Thursday, but no major damage was reported there.
With the new storms only getting started Friday afternoon, key cities in the danger area are Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville, Washington D.C., Roanoke and Raleigh, the National Weather Service stated. While describing the risk as slight, it added that any storms could be strong enough to blast 60 mph gusts and dump large hail.
Most of the initial reports of wind damage were in the Carolinas, Indiana and West Virginia, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
In Washington, any rain would provide some relief to recent high temperatures. Thursday saw 100 degrees --the seventh day at 100 or above this month, and a record for the most days above 100 for any month in D.C., NBCWashington.com reported.
In Elmira, thousands were still without power Friday morning after a twister tore through the town Thursday around 4 p.m. ET, the Elmira Star Gazette reported.
Trees fell on many homes and cars, while at least one business lost part of its second story to the tornado. The town was alerted to the possibility of a tornado a half hour before it hit, and no injuries were reported.
Adam Fenster / Reuters
Gary Dunning surveys the tornado damage to his business in Elmira, N.Y., on Thursday.
More than 85,000 homes and businesses in Pennsylvania were still without power Friday morning after Thursday's storms, while about 34,000 in New York and 13,000 in Ohio also had no electricity -- and thus no air conditioning for the sweltering summer heat.
In New York City, a 61-year-old man in Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood was killed when scaffolding at a church fell on him as the storm passed through around 8 p.m. ET, NBCNewYork.com reported.
"It's possible that lightning struck the top of the roof, causing some bricks to fall on top of the scaffolding," a police spokesman said.
In Genesee, Pa., a woman camping was killed when she took refuge in her car and a tree then fell on it.
The storms also disrupted air travel, forcing the cancellation of over 900 flights on Thursday, according to FlightAware.com, a flight tracking website. The highest number of cancellations was at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Flight delays were also reported at airports in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., according to the FAA flight monitoring website.
As bad as it was, Thursday's outbreak was nowhere as damaging as the June 29 storms that tracked over 600 miles from Indiana to the Mid-Atlantic and left millions without power.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
as far as DC goes this is nothing compared to what is coming in November. "we are the govt. and we know whats best" will soon go back to "WE THE PEOPLE" as intended.....of course thats "if" ....and only IF ...we the people wake up.
Get a life!
NERD! well I think this storm is beast! We need to heavy rain anyways because of the droughts.
Scooter, great post! Grave Digger, we need rain too. The storm has pretty much passed through Raleigh without measurable rain and a little wind, lightning and thunder. Maybe there is more to come tonight. We need the rain.
wow you tried to turn a story about weather into a political discussion sofa king original.
Seems like every story I come across, someone tries to spin it in to something political. What a sad sad life it must be...
Back on track, fortunately where I live (not far from Cincy), I didn't see much of the severe storm. The rain came down like a waterfall, but it quickly passed. At night there was a constant rolling of thunder that lasted about 15 - 20 minutes. Let's see what today will bring us, but let me cut the grass first. :)
Well maybe the storms will bring some relief from the Heat wave and not so much destruction.
not political....had really bad storms in the york,pa area last evening.we need the rain but not downpours like we rec'd....hopefully not today...
Join millions of others in showing support for Chick-fil-A by visiting your local Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, August 1, 2012. The plan is simple. At least once on August 1, eat a meal at Chick-fil-A and politely let the staff and management know you appreciate the company's Christian value system.
this is a really BS way to bring in business while at the same time trying to tell others how to live thier lives.Never will go to this place.
The white house need to vacate immediately. If man can't get rid of Obama, maybe an storm will.
Clearly you're insane.
and a Troll!!
WOW!!! An article about sever weather turns into political and religious commentary.
Even with adding these two tornadoes July is likely to set a record.
A record for the fewest tornadoes.
As of July 23, this month has produced a paltry total of 14 tornado reports, according to preliminary data from NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC).
The next-most-quiet July after 2012 is 1960, which saw a total of 42 tornadoes—three times what we’ve seen thus far this month. Many July's have produced more than 100 twisters.
http://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/opinion/7547/summertime-and-twisters-are-missin
Remember when they claimed that the heat from global warming was going to cause more storms and more tornadoes? Too bad they never took the Skywarn class offered free by the National Weather Service. They would have learned that cold is the key to storms. Without the cold air interacting with the warm air you don't get storms. That's why during the last 30 years of natural warming in the 60 year warming/cooling cycle the number of tropical cyclones trended down. That's why the US is currently setting a new record for the longest length of time since a major (cat 3 or above) hurricane has it the US. The old record was set back during the Civil War. That's why the number of violent tornadoes has been trending down since the 1970s too. Yes, there have been some years that have had lots of tornadoes but experts say that most of that increase comes from better radar, more trained spotters and more people living in more areas to see tornadoes.
One well respected meteorologist, Joe Bastardi is forecasting a return to the weather conditions from the 1950s. Back when the Earth was cooling. He predicts that the East coast of the US will begin to get hit by hurricanes just like it did back in the 1950s.
So if that starts to happen please don't listen to the idiots that will try to blame it on warming or man made climate change. It happened before when CO2 levels were much lower than today.
Watch the skies and stay prepared.
EconomyKiller, what most people do not understand is that the climate of the Earth has been continually changing since the Earth was created. Global warming no -- climate change yes. Thanks for your great post.
There were tornados that touched down in Hunlock Creek, Pa and Freeland, Pa both areas about 30 min from where I live in two different directions! It was scary because I was working when all of this was going on. Just glad my family was safe and no damage in our area!
I am in Elmira and feel blessed we don't see these kinda storms that bring tornado very often at all. My neighborhood looks like a war zone, my electric just got back on but we are all grateful no one was hurt or killed. God Bless our emergency and work crews who are out there taking care of us.
Here in WV we have been having severe storms almost daily for a few weeks. A few weeks ago we were hit extremely hard with wind and rain. The high wind here is very unusual because our majestic mountains usually protect us from high winds. There have been several power outages.
I got out West frequently and they are in extreme droughts there, it seems the whole country is catching hell in one way or the other.
that ole ''liberal hoax'' what a sense of humor eh? you aint seen nothing yet people.
Last November a wind storm blew down thousands and thousands of mature trees in south central Colorado. I never read one word about that on the national news.
with all the news every single day of ferociuos storms, mayhem and destruction, shouldn't there be a news category such as "the daily disaster"? or rather " daily disasters", we are weeks away from hurricane season, yet with the continuous heat and high pressure, blocking every cold front across the southeast usa, the upcoming hurricanes will have nothing to push them out to sea, if you live in the eastern usa, now would be a good time to prepare some provosions for weeks without power.
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Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.