Cleanup continues in Bensonhurst after microburst took down dozens of trees
NEW YORK -- Cleanup continued Wednesday in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after a microburst took down dozens of trees on Tuesday.
Heavy duty equipment came to remove trees scattered for blocks along Bay Ridge Parkway.
Trees were split open Tuesday; some fell on top of cars, others on homes. One even took down a metal awning.
"I was all shocked, and I was like, I didn't think-- not a hurricane? So how could that have happened?" one person said. "I thought just like a very strong rain storm."
The National Weather Service says Tuesday, around 4 p.m., a microburst occurred, which is a burst of fast-moving cool air within a collapsing thunderstorm. It's estimated that Tuesday's wind gusts were 70 mph, but the NWS says this powerful gust of air can go up to 100 mph.
"The sky turned like a grayish thing and it was very windy, and the trees just started falling down," one Bensonhurst resident told CBS New York early Wednesday morning. "I thought we had Hurricane Sandy, that's what I thought I was in, Hurricane Sandy, because the wind was gushing real bad."
Cleanup could take another day. The parks department says almost 70 trees fell in Brooklyn, and citywide, there have been almost 300 reports of damaged or fallen trees.
The parks department says the trees along Bay Ridge Parkway were last inspected in 2022 and found to be in good to fair condition.
The spokesperson says high winds can take down healthy trees.