Yes, Virginia, there was a tornado in Queens
And Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that we had two tornadoes and a massive burst of straight-line winds on Thursday evening.
The baby tornado (EF0) hit Staten Island and Park Slope; the bigger one crashed through Queens going NE and included a "macroburst" with 125mph winds.
There were 45000 people without power, almost all in Queens, with the last ones getting their juice back Sunday night.
There were an estimated 3000 trees destroyed.
ConEd is driving around putting up new poles and getting power lines off the ground, although they, like every other city agency involved in the cleanup, is woefully backed up. There was no getting through to 311 (non-emergency municipal services) on Friday at all, which is part of the reason my block is still watching the half-a-tree dangle from our phone line.
And with this being UN clown week, many extra resources can't be spared because they've got to go protect Ahmadinejad as he descends upon Turtle Bay to spew sewage.
The National Weather Service has confirmed that we had two tornadoes and a massive burst of straight-line winds on Thursday evening.
The baby tornado (EF0) hit Staten Island and Park Slope; the bigger one crashed through Queens going NE and included a "macroburst" with 125mph winds.
There were 45000 people without power, almost all in Queens, with the last ones getting their juice back Sunday night.
There were an estimated 3000 trees destroyed.
ConEd is driving around putting up new poles and getting power lines off the ground, although they, like every other city agency involved in the cleanup, is woefully backed up. There was no getting through to 311 (non-emergency municipal services) on Friday at all, which is part of the reason my block is still watching the half-a-tree dangle from our phone line.
And with this being UN clown week, many extra resources can't be spared because they've got to go protect Ahmadinejad as he descends upon Turtle Bay to spew sewage.