Heavy rain, wind causes trees to topple down in NYC; many residents without power
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City residents are coping with dozens of downed trees from Wednesday's heavy downpours and intense winds.
In the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, crews began removing downed trees early Thursday morning, in the hopes to restore power for residents and open streets to traffic.
The corner of West 227th Street and Marble Hill Avenue was littered with debris. Trees came crashing down on top of cars, closing down streets and knocking out power for many.
In the Concourse section of the Bronx, one tree obliterated someone's car. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
A similar sight could be found in the Melrose section, on a car parked on Grant Avenue and 164th Street.
Wednesday's storm was as nasty as it gets. It was kind of night where an umbrella is useless, and the wind was strong enough to uproot metal poles bolted to the sidewalk.
Though the weather was relentless on Wednesday, some residents believe the city could have minimized the amount of damage caused by downed trees.
"What's going through my mind is the city is supposed to do a better job to supervise all the trees. They think it's gonna be coming. Like the one on 227th. I made a report last Monday, they come to see it, they say it's not necessary to work on it. And look at what happened now," one resident said.
The New York City Parks Department says they received more than 200 reports of downed trees citywide due to the severe weather conditions.
They are looking into a tree that feel in the Bronx that was a source of neighborhood complaints as well as a large tree that fell at West Drive and West 62nd Street in Central Park.
On Thursday morning, about 3,500 Bronx residents were without power, and in Westchester, nearly 10,000 customers were without power.
Over on Manhattan's Upper West Side, wind gusts also brought a tree down on another car.
Wednesday's evening commute posed dangers for drivers who were met with ponding and downed trees on roadways.
The weather caused significant delays at airports across the country and more than 1,000 flights were canceled by Wednesday night. A ground stop was issued at LaGuardia while JFK and Newark both had dozens of cancelations.
And the New York Mets postponed Wednesday's game against Detroit due to the weather.
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