Stormy weather brings down trees, knocks out power in Queens
HOLLIS, Queens (WABC) -- High winds across New York City knocked down more than 100 trees Wednesday, causing a number of power outages.
Most of the damage was in Queens - and residents say the city had plenty of notice.
Parks Department workers whipped out the chainsaws Thursday morning in Hollis, but not before Sayheed Nazmi maneuvered his way through a mess of downed tree limbs and wires to show Eyewitness News a notice.
"The date is 11/10 at morning...11:49 a.m. I reported it," he said. "Because what I started to say, it was a dangerous situation. I wanted them to come and take care of it. But so far I didn't see anything happen, and it fell down now, finally."
The Parks Department responded to this in an email saying, "Our expert foresters have inspected this tree multiple times in the past 5 years. It was deemed in good and fair condition until last inspection on November 11 when (it was found to be in poor condition)...and it was scheduled for removal."
But it wasn't removed. And so Wednesday night, it came down.
In nearby Flushing, it was a similar scene: another large tree ripped from its roots by powerful gusting winds.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in either case. But residents have a day of cleanup work ahead.
RELATED: Crews rush to restore power to Teaneck residents after sudden outage amid storm
Queens was the borough hit hardest as the storm moved through yesterday afternoon into the evening, with 7,300 customers left without power amid rain and high winds.
Most of the Queens customers who lost service were in the Whitestone, Flushing, Elmhurst and Middle Village areas.
Nearly two dozen were still power Thursday morning.
Overall, Con Edison reported more than 15,000 customers without power in New York City and the part of Westchester County in its service area.
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