NEW YORK (WABC) — Heavy rain and powerful wind gusts have led to damage across the Tri-State area on Friday, including on Long Island, where high winds knocked down a tree and sparked a chain reaction.
Mother nature showed its fury, splitting a tree in two, and knocking down power lines and utility poles around 10 a.m. on Second Avenue and South Broadway in Lindenhurst, where crews are working to restore power.
“The wind was howling. I heard a loud bang and crash,” said neighbor Tony Trinceri. “Then I heard another boom, and all of a sudden I heard the electricity pulsing.”
“You can just hear it zapping and frying, and they started setting the tree on fire and the fire department came and had to put it out,” XX said. “It was really scary. I was worried about my neighbor. I didn’t know if it came down on the house or not.”
That neighbor, Henry White, considers himself lucky.
“Thank god my car was right here, so it missed my car by an inch,” White said. “I parked over there, but I mean, I guess the main damage, you know, for the master of the house and I’m just trying to deal with that right now.”
Crews worked quickly to clean up, but this was just a snapshot of the damage across Long Island.
In Great Neck, Long Island, a downed tree hit power lines that set two cars on fire on West Mill Drive, according to the Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Department.
In Stony Brook, Citizen App video shot from inside a car showed a downed tree across a roadway and in front of a home. It appeared that the tree struck a red car parked in the home’s driveway at 97 University Heights Dr.
Meanwhile in New York City, Citizen App video showed a tree that fell onto cars on the Upper East Side.
Thousands of power outages have been reported in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
At the major local airports, dozens of flights have been cancelled in addition to delays.
While the brunt of the rain moved out in the early afternoon, wind gusts could ramp back up through Friday night, with 20-35 mph sustained wind gusts, and some that could reach 50-60 mph.
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That could lead to additional tree damage, power outages, difficult travel and potentially even more flight delays.
The Tri-State area will finally dry out late Friday, and stay mainly dry this weekend.
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