Strong thunderstorms that swept through the New York City region on Thursday caused over 50,000 people living in the tri-state area to lose power. The storms also forced airline cancellations and downed trees, with gusts reaching 60 mph in some areas.
Authorities in Armonk claim that a tree fell on a woman's car, resulting in at least one death due to the storm.
The majority of the outages occurred in New York and New Jersey; as of 10 a.m., each state had reported at least 20,000. Westchester and Monmouth counties had the most of those outages, respectively. At the time, Eversource in Connecticut was reporting less than 6,000 continuous outages.
Rescue Operations
Despite major wind damage impeding their operations, utilities stated they were trying to restore service to the impacted consumers. As of 8 p.m. on Wednesday, NYSEG, for instance, had recorded 180 downed lines and over 30 broken poles, and high wind gusts were predicted to persist into the evening.
A dip in temperature made conditions worse, raising worries about heavy, wet snowfall that could disrupt service to the north and west of the city.
Winds Reached 70mph
In several places, winds in Fairfield County, Connecticut, reached 70 mph. A mother and her three children were inside a car in the town of Brookfield when a tree fell on them. They had just come home from food shopping.
The car was wrecked, but the family was unharmed. Similar reports of wreckage throughout the East Coast were received by other sources.
At the height of the storms on Wednesday night, lightning struck the Statue of Liberty, and residents in low-lying regions prepared for coastal flooding. This system left nearly 3 inches of rain in some parts of New York City, like Ozone Park in Queens, and nearly 4 inches of water in other parts of New Jersey, like Hillside.