Feb 11, 2008 7:05 pm US/Eastern
Bitter Winter Blast Brings Dangerous Winds To NYC
Wind Gusts More Than 40 MPH Take Down Power Lines, Construction Sites
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Winds gusting to over 40 mph caused damage across New York.
CBS
Old Man Winter's on-again off-again identity crisis is off-again, and he's wreaking havoc across the city with bitter cold temperatures accompanied by dangerous winds.
It was just 16 degrees in Central Park at 10:30 Monday morning, but strong winds from the west gusting more than 30 mph made it feel like it was only 1 degree. The expected high for the day was just 28 degrees, 12 degrees below normal for Feb. 11.
"Temperatures will go up, but the winds will stick around, so it's brutal today, but it's not going to stick around for day after day," said CBS 2 Meteorologist John Elliott. "Make sure you're ready with the correct headwear, the correct footwear, the correct fingerwear, and dress in layers."
The winds were causing much more trouble than just making it unbearably cold for New Yorkers. At a construction site along 8th Ave., scaffolding that used to support the weight of construction workers awas reduced to a pile of planks and beams, blown away by fierce wind in the early morning hours.
Just across town on Avenue C in the East Village, the roof of a building came loose, dangling over its edge and above the sidewalk.
In the Claremont section of the Bronx, trees and power poles came crashing down, slamming into cars and sidewalks. Power lines were mangled into dangerous webs of wire from the intense wind.
And on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, a second story add-on crumbled down, along with a newly completed 30-foot wall designed to anchor the renovation, yet more victims of the gusty weather.
"We set up a zone kept all the people out," said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Hodges.
In the Midwood section of Brooklyn, another scaffold became just a twisted heap of metal. It flew off a building and buried at least five cars on East 12th Street.
Neighbor Abba Florans heard creaking, saw shaking, and knew a big crash was just moments away. "I told my brother that thing is coming down in a matter of seconds and my brother said it came down, and there was a crash and it hit the wires. It was a chain effect," she said.
Utility poles were also pushed out of place. One even caught fire.
Fortunately, among all the damage and debris, no one was hurt.
Still, with gusts expected to blow more than 40 mph during the day, forecasters warn to bundle up and stay warm as wind chills will be in the single digits all day.
Thankfully, the winds will die down overnight, making for a much more pleasant Tuesday, despite temperatures only rising into the lower 30s.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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