NEW YORK — A tornado swept out of the sea and hit a beachfront neighborhood in New York City on Saturday, hurling debris in the air, knocking out power and startling residents who once thought of twisters as a Midwestern phenomenon.
About 10 minutes after the first tornado struck Breezy Point on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, a second one hit about 11:05 a.m., in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.
Videos taken by bystanders showed a funnel cloud sucking up water, then sand, and then small pieces of buildings, as it moved through the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.
The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for Queens and Brooklyn about 10:40 a.m. The storm took people by surprise anyway when it struck about 30 minutes later.
“I was showing videos of tornadoes to my 4-year-old on my phone, and two minutes later, it hit,” said neighborhood resident Peter Maloney. “Just like they always say, it sounded like a train.”
In the storm’s wake, the community of seaside bungalows was littered with broken flower pots, knocked-down fences and smashed windows.
At the Breezy Point Surf Club, a tornado ripped the roofs off rows of cabanas, scattered deck chairs and left a heavy metal barbecue and propane tank sitting in a softball field, at least 100 yards from any nearby home.
“It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters,” said the club’s general manager, Thomas Sullivan.
Half an hour later, the weather was beautiful, but Sullivan had to close the club to clean up the damage.
The tornadoes struck as part of a line of storms that were expected to bring damaging winds, hail, heavy rain and possibly more tornadoes throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Saturday. Across New York state, in Buffalo, winds from a broad front of thunderstorms blew roofing off of some buildings and sent bricks falling.
The storm system killed four people, including a child, in Oklahoma on Friday.
The weather service says winds in New York were up to 110 miles per hour, and several homes and trees were damaged. No injuries were reported.
