New York turned into the windy city Sunday — with gusts of nearly 65 mph downing trees and causing dangerous conditions at construction sites.
A Queens mom was petrified early Sunday morning when a 50-foot silver-maple tree toppled onto her Tudor-style home at about 3:30 a.m.
“It felt like an earthquake,” said Danielle Kahn, 32, of Howard Beach. “I thought someone was trying to break in. I was terrified.”
She immediately ran into her 5-month-old daughter’s bedroom to make sure she was unharmed before realizing that the tree had been uprooted and was leaning against the two-story brick house.
Over in Brooklyn, the top floor of a 10-story apartment building on Fourth Avenue came flying off, shutting down a four-block area for most of the day.
“There was a huge gust of wind. I heard a crash sound. I looked up and I saw things flying off the roof,” said Glenn Ling, a 31-year-old Park Slope resident who lives a block away. “It was
really dangerous, so I got out of there.”
And in Manhattan, a 30-foot branch from a cherry-blossom tree crashed onto a blue truck on Clinton Street.
“I originally didn’t see the truck and thought maybe they towed it because it was completely camouflaged by the branch,” said banker Andrew Mallomo, 37, who was renting the truck for the month while his car was in the shop.
The powerful winds were triggered by an Arctic cold front earlier in the weekend. It brought sustained winds of up to 30 mph with JFK airport clocking the highest gust at 64 mph at 5:30 a.m.
The mercury is expected to dip down to 34 Sunday evening with the possibility of some wet snow, according to Accuweather.
A rainy Monday could cause problems for the Yankees season opener against Houston Astros.
“It could get rained out,” said Dan Pydynowski, a senior Accuweather meteorologist. “It’s going to be a close call.”
Monday’s wet weather will taper off by the evening, when temps are expected to dip into the 20s.
It will only get up to 44 Tuesday with another sub-freezing night. But temperatures will start getting closer to normal by Wednesday — reaching 49 degrees, then jumping to the mid-50s by Thursday.
