Officials: Tornado Touched Down Near Paramus During Monday Storms
PARAMUS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A tornado touched down near Paramus, N.J. during the round of violent storms Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed.
The EF-1 tornado touched down between 3:16 and 3:18 p.m. Monday, the NWS said. Its reached an estimated wind speed of 100 mph and a width of 100 yards as it traveled 1.25 miles northeast across Bergen County.
No one was injured in the tornado, but it did cause major damage in the George Washington Memorial Park Cemetery near Paramus and Century roads, and the Paramus Golf Course and Ridgewood Country Club, where trees were snapped and uprooted.
The storms Monday did significant damage in the Tri-State area, ripping down trees and power lines and leaving thousands without power.
Numerous trees came down in Paramus, Emerson, Fair Lawn and other municipalities. Several houses were damaged by falling trees, and their owners were left terrified.
In Emerson, a tree fell on Colonial Road in Emerson, N.J., narrowly missing the bedroom where a little boy named Cooper Sfarra was sleeping in his crib. Cooper's grandmother, Carol Sfarra, told 1010 WINS a "big piece of ceiling" came into her grandson's crib, "but didn't touch him – we don't believe – and thank God."
The storm also brought multiple delays and cancellations on the NJ TRANSIT train system and at all three major area airports.
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