Cleanup underway after tornado hits Atlantic Beach on Long Island
Cleanup efforts are underway after a tornado struck Atlantic Beach on Long Island Thursday evening.
The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado in a statement Friday morning.
Nassau County was in a state of emergency following the tornado.
The tornado hit the Sun and Surf Beach Club at around 7:11 Thursday night. The place was packed with about 100 people at the time. Incredibly, there were no serious injuries.
"Tornadoes form in an instant. And in this case, it started off over the ocean, worked its way over the land here in Atlantic Beach," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said. "We're very, very fortunate, again, that nobody was injured, that there were no casualties. This was a major weather event."
Blakeman said the whole thing took place "in minutes."
Some form of damage was visible everywhere around the club Friday morning, CBS News New York's Elijah Westbrook reported. Part of one building's roof was ripped off. About 50 cabanas were affected.
"If you know the hardy people that belong to these beach clubs, they like to hang out here even in the bad weather. So I guess a lot of people left but there were still some stragglers here. One of the people that was in their cabana, actually, the roof flew off while they were in it, but luckily they weren't injured," Blakeman said.
"It's by the grace of luck that a lot of people weren't hurt here. Because this beach club is a very popular place during the summer, people travel from all over the island to come and enjoy their summer down here," Inwood Fire Chief Josiyah Green said. "No one was pulled from the building. Nobody was trapped."
There was one person with a "very minor injury," Green said.
"Right now, this beach club will be closed today. And we will take it on a day-by-day basis, whether this beach club will be able to open. They will be cleaning up today. And then we will be doing a structural inspection of all of the cabanas to make a determination as to whether or not we can reopen any of these cabanas this summer," Blakeman said.
Blakeman said the weather also caused some downed trees and power lines, along with areas of flooding. A roof was blown off in Stewart Manor, he said.
