Sunday, June 15, 2008

Richmond Hill Devastated By Saturday's Storm - wcbstv.com

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Saturday night's powerful storms are making this a father's day hundreds of families won't forget because they woke up to see downed trees and damaged homes.

The Richmond Hill section of Queens was hit especially hard – where a tree snapped during the storm and landed on top of a house on Myrtle Avenue.

"It definitely was different than anything you would see normally," said Richmond Hill resident John Landsbergis. "The way the winds were swirling around - my daughter said, 'that's not a regular storm, there's something else going on there.'

Nikita Guzman saw the whole thing from her apartment window, and she's convinced that what caused this destruction was more than a rain storm.

"It looked like a tornado came through from over there. It swept and lifted up the tree and softly landed on the ground. Then we saw this tree tumble on top of the house - it was amazing," said Guzman.

Despite there being several downed trees all over the neighborhood, no one was hurt.

In Jackson Heights, neighbors had to deal with rushing waters that flooded out of basements.

"As soon as I opened up the door, all the water poured down into the basement," said Ken Young. "It took us until midnight to go ahead and wet-vac out and start disinfecting things."

The mess is all cleaned up but Young worries about water damage you can't see.

"When you get under the floor boards - then it starts rotting," said Young.

In Nutley, New Jersey, a town that's still cleaning up from last week's storm, there are scattered power outages and thanks they didn't get hit again.

But back in Queens, the cleanup is just starting.

Richmond Hill residents are convinced this was no ordinary storm - they want to know exactly what moved through their neighborhood.