New York – Wind gusts as strong as 50 miles per hour knocked trees over onto power lines, cars and houses in a broad swath of neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens on Wednesday afternoon, causing problems for homeowners and motorists, officials said.
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Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said that field workers have confirmed that at least 11 trees had fallen on houses. One woman received a minor injury to her head and was taken to the hospital when she was struck by a branch while in the Bronx, he said.
“The high winds, particularly the gusts, appear to have done quite a bit of damage,” Mr. Benepe said. “This is like a storm.”
There were preliminary reports of toppled trees in the Richmond Hill, Briarwood, South Jamaica and Rockaway sections of Queens, as well as in the Williamsburg and Gravesend sections of Brooklyn.
The National Weather Service, which issued a wind advisory for the New York area just before noon on Wednesday, said the gusts were caused by a low-pressure air mass that passed north of New York City, with a cold front trailing it it.
“It had some strong, gusty winds behind it, and we’re still feeling the effects of those gusty winds,” said Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist for the weather service’s office in Upton, N.Y. “It’s one of the more windy days we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks.”
Mr. Ciemnecki said he had heard of accounts of trees down in New Jersey and scattered power outages on Long Island and in Connecticut. “The whole northeast is feeling these gusty winds,” he said.
Frank Dwyer, a Fire Department spokesman, said the authorities had received reports of at least a dozen cases in which trees had toppled onto power lines or other parts of the public infrastructure.
The city’s 311 line has received more than 700 calls reporting fallen trees or limbs, the vast majority in Queens and Brooklyn, said Mr. Benepe. He added that the city wouldn’t be able to have an accurate assessment of the damage until tomorrow, though he estimated the number of damaged trees could be in the hundreds.
VIN has received reports of many sukkahs in Brooklyn and Queens being totally destroyed by the high winds.
While we were in Boro Park today we saw an old lady blown over. I ran & picked her up…thank you to the woman who said she couldn’t help me because she had a bag in each hand. Thank you to the man who watched her fall & didn’t move to pick her up.
A genuine “Thank you” to Hatzalah who came so promptly & made sure she was OK with such smiles & warmth…you are wonderful!
It is absulutly terrible this winds
pushut a siman min hashamayim that we have to be more nizar in tzniyus on chol hamoed trips and in everyday life
The Marine Park sukkah collapsed,maybe it’s. a siman from shamayim that they should do teshuvah.b”h at least the simchas beis hashoeva is not affected.
A tree branch fell on the Mosholu Parkway just 20 feet in front of my car as I was driving home tonight. One second later and it would have fell on my car, with me in it. I was fortuanately able to swerve and avoid both the branch and other cars. I thank HaShem for having what might have been deadly be just a close call.
After that, seeing my sukkah with the schach mats blown off didn’t seem like such a disaster.
any advise in keeping schach down
i wish my succah blew to aretz yisrael and landed there
baltimore had crazy winds too!
To commentors #4 through #1 0 :
I believe that commentor #1 was being facetious & was referencing similar “unrelated” tznius comments made in the past.
At a recent tznius somposium, it ended with “remember we wear clothing to conceal and not reveal”- so i see the connection. The sukka is supposed to protect us, perhaps if we don’t do the mitzvah correctly, the wind blows it apart and uncovers us the same way clothing that may cover us but does reveal what it should be covering! The same with band sheitel, if you wear a band and your hair is showing as if you are not wearing a sheitel, you are fooling no one but yourself.
If you have a sucah mat for schach but heavy wood or braches on it.
I live in monsey. I was sitting in my sukka and eating and my wife came in that my neighbor is now leaving to the city and shleping to the bus with no car with 6 kids all under 12… And a lot of packages so she asked me if I want to take them with my car. So I went out to take them. And when I was backing out from my parking my wife called me in that the sukka just collapsed. Bh in the zechis of that mitzva I was rescued… A giten moiad everybody. Enjoy your y”t
maybe its a siman the men shouldn’t be wasting so much time online but they should rather be learning
My sukkah remained intact as well as my tree. I don’t wear a wig , the integrity of my schach is questionable & I don’t own a black hat. I guess this is siman that some peiple are superstitous!
This is one of the reasons why condo boards don’t want Sukkahs. In high winds they can fall apart and hit innocent people and injure them.
was in monsey on main street by stolin and saw tables & chairs I looked around & saw walls around it on the floor!! (suckah collapsed)
pretty crazy wind yesterday! b’h, sukkah stayed intact, though some of our decorations were shredded or blown away 🙁 we’ve always tied down our schach with natural twine to keep it secure, and it held up just fine yesterday.
I have some news for all of you. My teire chaver, who goes by the initials ER, is responsible for the wind. I refse to elaborate. Sorry E, but everyone who lnows you knows the emes.