The Mid-Atlantic was rocked with storms yesterday.
As a swirling mass of black cloud swept over the Rockaways on Saturday morning…not one but two tornadoes ripped through parts of Brooklyn and Queens, causing as much bemusement as terror among New Yorkers unaccustomed to such aggressive weather.
One tornado ripped through a beach club in Queens, one of several outbursts of severe weather across the New York region that flooded roads, felled power lines, and forced the delay of the United States Open.
A second tornado touched down in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the National Weather Service said.
The swirling columns of wind and water in Queens, captured by dozens of people on cellphones and almost instantly posted on the Internet, lasted only minutes, according to witnesses. But in that short time the tornado tore down walls, lifted roofs off homes and tangled power lines as it cut a path through the Rockaways, near Breezy Point.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who arrived in Breezy Point on Saturday afternoon to assess the damage, said there had been no reports of injuries.
The second tornado struck Brooklyn about 11:30 a.m. with a speed of 110 miles an hour and traveled about half a mile, the Weather Service said. The severe weather was expected to continue into the night as a cold front moving in from the west made its way into the area, meeting up with the warm, moist air ahead of it and causing instability in the atmosphere.
The storm delayed the start of the United States Open and forced the women’s singles final to be postponed until Sunday.
Hit the flip for more scenes from the storm.
