A Walk in the Park: Tree Kills One In Deadly Storm- Thousands of Trees Destroyed

Friday, September 17, 2010

Tree Kills One In Deadly Storm- Thousands of Trees Destroyed

"A woman was killed when a tree fell on her car about 6:50 p.m. on the Grand Central Parkway near Jewel Avenue in Queens. The police said the woman, whom they identified as Iline Leuakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., had pulled her car, a 2010 Lexus sedan, to the side of the parkway. " - New York Times.

A storm swept through several of the city's boroughs Thursday, causing widespread damage. Trees near Utopia Parkway, Queens were torn out of the ground.

Trees near Utopia Parkway, Queens were torn out of the ground. A storm swept through several of the city's boroughs Thursday evening, causing widespread damage, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were hit hardest. Aline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was killed when a tree crushed a car she was driving on Jewel Ave. and the Grand Central Parkway in Queens.

City Wide

A monster storm ripped through the city Thursday evening, killing one person, snapping mighty trees, and flipping tractor-trailers like toys, according to an account in the New York Daily News.

New Yorkers scrambled for cover from torrential rain, hail the size of nickels, and 100 mph winds when the storm hit at 5:20 p.m. on the heels of tornado warnings.

Weather officials could not confirm a twister touched down, but witnesses reported funnel clouds in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.

The sky turned a sickening shade of green as the destructive winds blew in, toppling a church steeple, blowing out windows and mowing down a forest's worth of trees.

"It's like a war zone out here," said Jeanne King, surveying her Forest Hills, Queens, neighborhood. "Trees are down. Some houses have come apart."

Residents in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree.

Residents in the Park Slope neighborhood in the Brooklyn circle around a car crushed by a fallen tree. (photo: Lennihan/AP)

"During the storm, the sky turned green and that's when we knew it was time to go inside," said Lindsey Hankes, 22, who was at the corner of Lincoln Plance and Seventh Ave. in Park Slope when the storm hit.

Lincoln Plance and Seventh Ave. in Park Slope.

A deadly tornado-like storm battered the city late this afternoon — snapping and uprooting trees and tossing them like twigs into cars and homes, authorities said, according to the New York Post.

The Long Island Railroad suspended service west of Jamaica due trees on the tracks and a power outage stalled NJ Transit service, officials said, though they "anticipate the restoration of AM rush hour service to Penn Station through Jamaica with some cancellations possible."

A tree fell onto a house on Auburndale Lane after a storm with heavy winds hit the area.