A violent, fast-moving storm swept through the city Thursday evening, killing a Queens woman when it knocked over a falling tree, crushing her.
The woman was inside her car at Grand Central and Jewel Avenue in Queens at 6:50 p.m. when the tree was knocked down by fierce winds, killing her, the FDNY said.
The storm hit just after 5 p.m. as people headed home from work. Many arrived to find
trees thrown across streets, on top of cars and into houses in parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
It was too soon to classify the storm, an official from the Office of Emergency Management said, noting that Staten Island’s Port Richmond and parts of Park Slope in Brooklyn seemed to be hit hardest.
“A tree fell on top of my car,” said Arbin Moreira, 35, a Bedford-Stuyvesant resident. “The roof is smashed, the windshield is smashed.”
Fallen debris even briefly trapped a family in their Park Slope home on 13th Street.
“We got clobbered,” said Park Slope City Councilman Brad Lander. A tree fell on top of his neighbor’s house. “On many, many blocks in my neighborhood, trees are on top of cars, houses and wires.”
Some Park Slope homes had their roofs blown off, according to reports.
A National Weather Service spotter reported a funnel cloud over Staten Island around 5:35 p.m. Weather officials had issued tornado warnings for the city, which were canceled by 6 p.m.
