Severe Weather Unleashes Floods, Takes Out Trees, Leaves Many In Dark
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Severe weather caused flooding, cut power, and took down trees around the area Thursday
Trees came down in numerous parts of Queens, including the Bayside, Bay Terrace, and Whitestone. As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported, a pair of pin oak trees collapsed and brought down wires on 216th Street in Bay Terrace.
The sky was pitch black, and as Linda Mariacher said, there was an eerie calm.
"As soon as the wind started, within seconds it, it was scary. We were standing at the window and I'm like alright, let's back up," she said.
Severe Weather Unleashes Floods Around Tri-State Area, Takes Out Pair Of Trees In Queens
The two large trees across the street topples, and tore up the sidewalk.
"Unbelievable. I first saw the pole and then you look down, and you're like 'oh my gosh, the tree went down, and everything's gone.' There's a big hole," she said.
The trees landed on a house and knocked out power to the entire neighborhood.
Severe weather also took out a tree on East 29th Street and Clarendon Road in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, a total of 600 customers lost power in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, due to a problem with a feeder underground, according to Con Edison.
Amrik Singh told CBS2's Valerie Castro that everything in the refrigerator at his Unionport Road deli will have to go out with the trash.
"Ice cream, it goes bad," he said.
Residents gathered outside to beat the heat and watch Con Edison crews work on the problem underground.
Some, like Conrad Sharpe had no choice but to wait outside. He uses wheelchair and lives on the 7th floor of his building. No power mean no elevator.
"It means that unless I get help to get upstairs tonight, I'm not going to be able to take my medication because I'm also diabetic," he said.
At the time it was unclear if the outage had been weather related, but the rain did cause problems earlier in the day as well.
Power in the Bronx was restored around 9:45 p.m. and residents hope it stayed on.
"I think it's sad. It shouldn't happen, especially when yu got elderly people and handicapped people like myself. When stuff like this happened we're at the mercy of anybody," Sharpe said.
In Brooklyn, 250 customers in a two-block area were without power due to a feeder failure that caused a manhole fire at Avenue U and Nostrand Avenue.
Flooding was also reported around the area, including the Long Island Rail Road tracks near the Hicksville station. The flooding there briefly halted the Ronkonkoma and Port Jefferson branches of the LIRR Thursday evening.
