Apocalyptic Superstorm Batters New York City Killing Two

Two people were killed and more than 100,000 homes and businesses in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were without electricity Friday morning after ferocious thunderstorms swept through the region.

A state of emergency and curfew were in effect in Elmira, New York, this morning after a suspected tornado toppled power lines and trees and hospitals were placed on disaster alert.

Only emergency vehicles allowed on the streets until 8 am while the damage was cleared, Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management spokeswoman Karen Miner said.

The severe weather, which has been described as the summer’s second ‘derecho’, claimed the lives of two people. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

A prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office was killed after he was hit by scaffolding and bricks that fell from a church steeple that was struck by lightning in Brooklyn, New York, according to the New York Post.

Richard Schwartz, 61, was taken to Long Island College Hospital in Brookyn where he was pronounced dead.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a statement about the tragic death. ‘I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Assistant Attorney General Richard Schwartz who was tragically killed last night as a result of the storm,’ Schneiderman said in a statement.

As the storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across Midwest and Northeast, hail ranging from the size of a dime to a quarter fell in some areas of Pennsylvania, AccuWeather.com said.

Meteorologists said 70-mile-per-hour (113-kph) winds were reported in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled and at least 300,000 homes suffered power cuts in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut after warnings of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hail and hurricane-strength winds along the East Coast.

More than 900 flights in the U.S. were grounded with LaGuardia Airport in New York the worst affected with 162 planes unable to take off.

Around 32 million people were directly in the path of the storm yesterday including those in and around New York City, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Skies darkened over Manhattan around 6pm with heavy downpours on the island and in the Bronx first, then rolling across Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn. source – Daily Mail UK