Caught on video: Rockland County, N.Y. man nearly struck by lightning
NEW CITY, N.Y. - Wednesday's storms brought destruction to parts of New York state.
A tornado did damage in the upstate New York city of Rome in Oneida, north of Utica. The twister snapped trees in half and sent debris flying into people's homes. It toppled power poles and downed power lines. Some buildings were completely destroyed, with bricks and debris falling on top of cars.
Several people in the city said they lost everything.
The National Weather Service said it was the worst tornado to hit the area in at least 30 years.
"I am so lucky to be alive"
There were long hours of cleanup Thursday after powerful winds and hundreds of lightning strikes slammed the northern suburbs.
One Rockland County man got the fright of his life when lightning struck just feet away.
"I'm thinking I am so lucky to be alive. That's the closest lightning ever has come to me," Matt Krass said.
He was in his New City back yard with his 7-year-old dog Shuggy when Shuggy's bathroom break was interrupted in an unforgettable way.
"Loudest crash that I've probably ever heard in my life, and the echo that came after that," Krass said.
An hour later and a short distance away, lightning struck trees at High Tor State Park. The electric charge traveled to a nearby tent. The three people holding the tent in the wind suffered minor burns.
"They all said they froze and couldn't move their hands off the tent. They were just, like, stuck," Bronx resident Katherine Recio said.
High winds peeled away some of the roof at the local Elks Club in Haverstraw, and took down trees at Bowline Point Park. One fell on a Parks trailer, and another crashed into a park building, causing thousands in damage.
"The wind was just swirling, you couldn't even see two feet in front of you standing still with the amount of rain that was coming down. We lost some trees and then we just started cleaning up," Parks Director John Frizalone said.
In Ossining, the storm took down multiple large trees at Richard Wishnie Park. Utility crews spent the morning fixing damage to electrical infrastructure.
First Alert weather producer Matt DeLucia checked the radar. In a 30-minute period Wednesday night, that storm produced 630 lightning strikes, and winds gusted up to 60 miles an hour.