Tornado, Waterspout And Storm Damage Captured On Video, Photos

Just minutes after New York City was placed under tornado warning on Saturday morning, the area got a bit of Kansas thrown its way. Winds picked up quickly as the storm rolled in off the Atlantic, over the Rockaways, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach and Sheepshead Bay. And with it came a waterspout – essentially a tornado on water – that came ashore, into Gerritsen Beach, and then up towards Flatbush.

Our readers were all over the place, capturing video and photos as the ominous clouds rolled over the Bay and the funnel touched ground.

Above is video caught by a GerritsenBeach.net reader (and published there first), showing the waterspout moving through the water around Gerritsen Beach and, it seems, hitting the shoreline.

Not far away, Sheepshead Bites reader Bill Woodroffe snagged a few shots of a waterspout just off the shore of Plumb Beach, where reports say it eventually made landfall and crossed the Belt Parkway. He took the photos from the marina at the Deep Creek Yacht Club. You can see Kingsborough Community College on the horizon (to the left), and Plumb Beach on the right.

Over in Manhattan Beach, resident Kathleen Higgins went to the Shore Boulevard waterfront to check out how the boats were handling the winds and waves. And, while there, she got some vivid video of the storm clouds over Emmons Avenue, and the panicked fish jumping in the waters:

Meanwhile, some of the best video was captured as the tornado/waterspout crossed Breezy Point:

And while the two twisters that struck the area on Saturday – the 9th and 10th since 2007, by the way – thankfully did not cause any deaths or injuries, the storm did cause downed power lines, trees and damaged homes across Brooklyn and Queens.

Here in Sheepshead Bay, the winds were strong enough to damage roofs, and toppled a massive tree on East 13th Street, between Avenue Z and Shore Parkway.

Reader David Talalovsky sent in video of the downed tree, which damaged four cars and ripped open the sidewalk.

Another neighbor, Angel Juarbe, sent in some photos:

And, of course, we got a few of our own:

Did you get video or photos of the twisters? Or of the damage the storm caused? Send them to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.