Tornado, storm wreaks havoc in NYC
BY NEWSDAY and amNEWYORK STAFF
August 9, 2007
Torrential rains and a tornado packing 135-mph winds tore through the city Wednesday morning, ripping apart homes, crippling the subway system and forcing stranded commuters to walk for hours in stifling heat.
Just as the morning rush began, the storm dumped 3.5 inches of rain across the city in barely two hours, whipped up a twister in Brooklyn and unleashed flash floods that led to the death of a Staten Island woman whose car got stuck on a submerged highway and was hit by another vehicle.
Roofs were pulled off brick row houses in Sunset Park and a car dealership in Bay Ridge. Towering, hundred-year-old trees snapped at their roots. A 15-foot by 20-foot stained glass window in a church was reduced to a pile of colorful shards on the sidewalk.