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Subscribe to RSSA tornado is seen touching down in New York City on Saturday.
Updated at 7:50 p.m. ET: Two tornadoes touched down in New York City late Saturday morning, one in Queens and another in Brooklyn, causing damage and frightening startled residents.
Two possible tornadoes also were reported later Saturday in the Washington, D.C., area as strong winds and heavy rains plowed through the area, leaving tens of thousands without electricity as a severe weather cold front spanned much of the East Coast.
An EF0 tornado made landfall in the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens at approximately 11 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. The 70 mile per hour winds hurled sand and debris in the air, downed multiple trees and power lines, moved cars and damaged property.
About five minutes later, an EF1 tornado touched down in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the National Weather Service confirmed. The 110 mile per hour winds leveled trees and power lines and damaged homes.
No injuries were reported from either tornado.
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.
In Canarsie, where the tornado ripped off parts of roofs, Terrill Baden struggled to close his front door as the twister rolled in.
"The wind was very stong," Baden said. "It was raining. A lot of debris was flying around."
Linda Beal-Benigno was driving on the Belt Parkway near the Flatbush exit when she said a tornado traveled across the road.
"At first I though it was dark smoke," she told NBCNewYork.com. "The entire belt felt like it was shaking. It was very frightening because you could see the funnel traveling and moving. It crossed the highway and just missed cars."
She added, "I never saw anything like that in my life."
View NBCNewYork.com's complete storm coverage
courtesy Caitlin Walsh
Debris strewn near the tip of Breezy Point, at the Breezy Point Surf Club.
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."
"It was crazy," neighborhood resident Joseph Mure told The Associated Press. He said he 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."
Near the nation's capital, tornado-like funnel clouds were reported Saturday afternoon in Chantilly, in Fairfax County, and in Prince George's County, Md. The weather service hadn't confirmed the reports as tornadoes by early Saturday evening.
NBC Learn explains how tornadoes form.
Fairfax County officials said that a tornado was on the ground shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday. They reported three home cave-ins because of downed trees, a water rescue in the Potomac River and dozens of down electrical wires, Dan Schmidt, a fire department spokesman, told the Associated Press.
View NBCWashington.com's complete storm coverage
There were also reports of malfunctioning traffic lights and downed trees and power lines in the area as thunder, heavy rains and winds approaching 60 mph struck the region.
Emergency officials were attending to about a dozen people who were injured during a panicked rush for the exit at the Show Place Arena, hosting Prince George's County Fair, in Upper Marlboro, said Mark Brady, a spokesman for the Prince George's County fire and emergency management agency. About 400 to 500 people were in attendance at the arena, officials said. Twelve were evaluated for injuries and four were transported to hospitals, NBCWashington.com reported.
In the District of Coulmbia there were reports of about 10 downed trees, including one that came down on a southeast apartment building undergoing construction, NBCWashington.com reported.
Al Bello / Getty Images
Rain falls on center court in Arthur Ashe stadium to suspend play on Day 13 of the 2012 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
In Connecticut, strong line of storms left damage in Kent, Ridgefield and Northfield, NBCConnecticut.com reported.
Strong thunderstorms reached western Massachusetts Saturday evening, NBC station WWLP reported.
NBCNewYork.com's Matthew R. Warren and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
dip SET.
Then, a Mighty Angel picked up a boulder shaped like a huge Mill Stone, and threw it into the
Atlantic Ocean,
and cried mightily with a loud voice saying!!
Just as I have thrown away this stone, the great city of Babylon will be thrown down with violence , and shall never be found again!!!
The Book Of Revelation, Chapter 18 verse 21
Scott
Please lay off the Kool-aid or hooka. NYC is the sin city of the east coast. They have enough internal problems as it is. Wall Street being one of them.
I don't know. Have you been to AC lately? Shady-town, USA.
There is a suburban town of New York City that is named West Babylon. If that is the case, then where did the town of Babylon go, hmm, Scott? Go look it up on a map and you'lll see that I'm right.
And the weather is not changing at all, nooooooooo, not at all. When will people start to see, when there is a tornado in L.A.?
Wasn't that a movie or something?
More proof that Ecology and natural science is not real science. WE need more profit and the earth be damned...
From looking at this video it looks like the Belt was actually moving faster than normal.....
Is it so bad just to be save than sorry? what is so bad about recycling our products, reducing water waste, planting a few trees in our neighborhoods and using green products? I was a skeptic for a long time, but recently I just don't know anymore! I am a mom of two and we have made changes in my household. There is something wrong going on....have you seen pictures of the Yangtze River in China, the loss of wet lands and rivers world wide or the vast deforestation, the dead whales and dolphins in the middle east? I'm scared. We have ruined our ecosystem and it's fighting back.
Well now, Don't be afraid we can just call a number and they will help you!!!!!!! BLAH!
We screw over the ones we love the most that actually do help us with all their hearts!
We blame them for our troubles and our mistakes! We fire them from their meanings of life and give them a
road of despair! Then we try to crush their dreams with hypnotics culturing devices.
The truth is we don't put our faith in the right minds. Where is my damn golden ticket for my Wonka Factory of
awesomeness!!!!!!!! Well It is time this call got the answers back. This is just the example that every location
across the world will face these types of devastation. All we have is time to tell! Well I told you already..and
now look here it is! Well do you want to see the big pictures or do you want to pretend they never existed....
so hey chief what is a conspiracy anyways!~ = )
Don't STOP Believing. Apparently Global Climate Change is in fact a Lie.... The GOP said so, so it MUST be true. The GOP may not have caused the tornado but awareness to potentially damaging weather changes will be ignored if we keep listening to them.
I have been a skeptic about global warming for a long time. But lately I just don't know. I'm scared. I am a mother of two boys and we have made a few changes in our household. Is it so bad to be safe than sorry. what is wrong with a little recycling of our products or buying green once in a while or reducing water waste, planting a few trees in our back yard? Or is the fact that the Yangtze River turning red is a lie or the lost of wet lands and rivers around the world is not really happening....it started with deforestation and it ended with a whole in our ozone layer. Something is obviously wrong.
This just in from the Romney campaign: Another example of the Liberal MSM trying to prove that Climate Change is real.
This just in from the planet KOLOB: Mitt please come home, we see your adopted planet suffering from the escalating effects of Climate Change and we are worried for your safety.
Obviously, climate change is a myth. Cleearly, it's a liberal plot...they control the weather...somehow.
The driver must be heading to a Yankees game. Only Yankees fans would be stupid enough to head en masse TOWARD a tornado.
Stupid Redsox fan, shaddap shutten up!!!
And only an idiot would think someone was driving to a Yankees game in Brooklyn or Queens today when they are playing in Baltimore and not at Yankee Stadium.
I am SO grateful for these 'comment' pages, they allow us to see how "Americans" really think. Everything tragic that happens to somebody else is a 'joke',all else that goes wrong in the world is so easily blamed on your opposition. You invoke the name of GOD and bush as if they were the same...crime and theft and abuse are justified because they are a part of your party platform. Speculate with me, how many times do you think your pedophile priests invoke the name of GOD while doing the nasty to somebody's kid? You still bow to them, pay them like your pimps, and defend them to the end (no pun intended). This evidence shows that there is no GOD; if there was, the tornado would have touched down in your living room (so that you can blame Obama).
ahhhhhhh, shaddap!!!
I wish everyone would stop referring to NY CITY as New York. There is an ENTIRE state, not just the city, so please remember there is NY and NYC!!!!!!!
The rest of the state does NOT reflect NYC.......PERIOD!!!!
Actually New York is the County where Manhattan (and a few smaller islands are) The city and state took their name from the County.
So how about you stop using OUR name. You upstate types embarrass us. And nobody but you thinks of Upstate when they hear New York....you are just hanging off our name.
Same Reason Jersey types say they live in NY if hey are in Newark, Newport etc.
Love tornadoes!!!! Yeeeeeeee Haaaaaa...!!!!! I chase them every chance I get. They are a riot! Not so much fun when they tear people's stuff up though. :(
I don't think you have to worry about climate change, God will take out his anger on this country, if the democrats don't destoy it first. Maybe that's God at work. You people better wake up...
I just woke up. Thanks, I was almost going to be late for work.
E Thomas is that why God sent a hurricane to Tampa for the GOP Convention? TO show his anger?
Did it take any scum bag liberals?
Tornados, if they're going to do damage and they DO, as PEOPLE are going to be casualties of them, because like dreadful illnessness, my incredibly stupid bigoted, uneducated conservatard troll, as they take ALL kinds, the rich, the poor, liberals, libertarains, the religious, atheists, YOUR KIND since disasters do NOT discrimnate among the victims, so leave your crap useless comment within your last dying brain cell where it can die of loneliness and not on this forum please Q5454. You are NOT immune, nor are YOU the superior social or political echelon in this country as much as delusions of grandeur imagine you to be. You still crap and pee the same as everyone else when it comes right down to it toots.
EH, to bad it didn't suck up all the rappers, wannabe rappers n all the assorted wiglets roaming around.
Like the one driven the car in the vid that was obviously stuck in a vocabulary vortex of his own >;).
Anthony I detect racism and ignorance in your post.
I don't generally like Rap, but I have a VERY simple solution to that...I don't listen to it.
But the real tragedy is that it did not 'suck up' all the Grease-ball Criminal Mafia Italian/Sicilians who wear too many chains and the tackiest clothing.
Oh was that not nice and a sick generalization? Gee being a bigot is never pretty is it?
(FYI my Sig Other is Sicilian but not a bigot like you)
I believe all this dramatic weather change isn't new. More like a cycle it goes thru every so many years and we just happen to be living in that time frame. We've had tornadoes in Montana the last couple years and "Montana doesn't have tornadoes" but in 2011 we had 27 I believe. Even killed people.
What do you do for a living? Climate scientist or someone that does brake jobs at Midas and listens to Limbaugh? I'm guessing I'm closer to the latter.
Thank the Lord that no one was hurt.
Ask the Good Lord why it even happened?
Thank the LORD it didn't touch the Hot Dog stands!
Wonder how Blumberg is going to do an ordinance on Mother Nature's whims? Put her under lock and key with the baby formula. Hey guys it is election year, all that hot air circulating from RNC/DNC (I am equal in distributing the BS equation) hitting the colder air going to be a lot worse. Good that no one was killed.
This is proof that not only can Obama predict the weather 3 months in advance, he can control it too.
Who is Blumberg?
If you are going to post stupidity, at least try to learn who the Mayor of NY is and what his name is
fugetaboutit!
Of course, this can't be blamed on any sort of climate change....unless God is p*ssed at the f*gs again....please, post all of those URLs of BS that you all always do....because after all, anything about the climate posted by a PAC supported by ExxonMobil MUST be accurate.....