Severe weather hits New York by Delia Cruceru

Severe weather paralyzed New York at rush hour. A torrential rain and a tornado crippled New York's subway system, highway tunnels and causing delays at Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia airports, all this happening Wednesday morning. By rush hour the pumping stations from the subway were overwhelmed thousands of commuters stranded for hours. The National Weather Service reported that a mass of tropical air dumped an extraordinary amount of rain in a short period of time. The worst was recorded between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., with 2.5 inches falling on Central Park and almost 3.5 on Kennedy International Airport. The tornado from Brooklyn killed a woman trapped in her car that was hit by another vehicle. More than 70 buildings were damaged, 20 of them so badly they were deemed uninhabitable. In Brooklyn's Sunset Park, houses of raw brick were left without roofs, and a car dealership in Bay Ridge, along with 100-year-old trees snapped at their roots. Mayor Michael Bloomberg remarked, "I don't know that God had rush hour in mind when the storms hit." After the storm the Metropolitan Transportation Authority continued to fight with the water, commuters were still stranded and brought criticism from city officials. The storm took us by surprise because it was not predicted by the National Weather Service," said MTA Chairman Elliot "Lee" Sander.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070808/ap_on_re_us/severe_weather;_ylt=AniMjQLfkOVFAomV_b9ByAys0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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