Tornado Hits Brooklyn; Subway Back in Service
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: August 8, 2007
Most of the New York City subway system was back in service by this evening’s rush hour after a fierce morning storm disrupted transit service throughout much of the region and unleashed a rare and destructive tornado that whipped southwestern Brooklyn with winds of up to 135 miles an hour.
The storm dropped about 3 inches of rain on the New York metropolitan area in about an hour, flooding major thoroughfares, cutting off power to thousands of homes and causing confusion that lingered through a humid, sweaty day.
The tornado set off by the storm raged through Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, ripping the roofs off five brick rowhouses, yanking thick trees out by their roots, turning cars sideways and shattering countless windows.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down in Bay Ridge just after 6:30 a.m. and traveled northeast, damaging homes and tearing the roof off a Nissan car dealership before dissipating.
The tornado forced the evacuation of 20 buildings, leaving 32 families without shelter, the city buildings department said. Another 50 buildings experienced some damage.
On 58th Street in Sunset Park, Lanie Mastellone watched her ceilings collapse one by one. “Then when I opened the door to get out of the actual apartment,” she said, “that’s when I realized I had no roof.”
Jeffrey M. Warner, a meteorologist at Penn State University, said that the tornado was the first one to hit Brooklyn since at least 1950, when modern record-keeping began. It was the first tornado to hit New York City since 2003, when a weak tornado touched down in Staten Island, and only the sixth tornado recorded in the city since 1950, Mr. Warner said.
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