Tornado Touches Down In Great River; Fast-Moving Storms Batter Tri-State Area

Updated at 12:28 a.m., Aug. 11, 2012

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Fast-moving storms battered the Tri-State Area on Friday, sending trees onto homes, and causing widespread outages and delays.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a Tornado touched down in Suffolk County Friday afternoon, CBS 2 reported.

The EF0 tornado touched down in Great River at 2:06 p.m. and moved more than four miles into Ronkonkoma before  lifting off, the National Weather Service said.

WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reports

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Several trees were also knocked down in Oakdale and Bohemia, in addition to in Great River.

"All of a sudden, I hear all this wind and whatever, and I say what the heck is going on?" Bohemia's Cecilia Rudkowski told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis on Friday night.

The 68-year-old said her husband heard it first.

"He says 'A tree came down,' and I looked out the door, and I  say 'Two trees came down," Rudkowski said with a laugh.

The 85 mph winds flattened a 35-year-old silver maple, pulling out of the ground at its roots, but down the street, Tom Diemidio said he saw rotation.

"All of a sudden, I  saw wind, totally sideways, took this tree down. It hit the floor and came back, 15-20 seconds and this is what was left," Diemidio said.

"Heavy winds came, hit my fence, blew some shingles off the roof. I have trees down on fences, swings in the pool," Bohemia resident Chris Ingoglia told CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan.

The storm forced an elderly woman out of the East Meadow home she has lived in for over 50 years.

A large tree fell onto the one-story home while 92-year-old Laura Frascinella was inside, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported.

"All of a sudden I heard a crash and I looked out the door and saw the tree fell on my house," Frascinella said. "I'm very frightened."

"I was sitting in the house. The tree came down on the house and I didn't know what to do," Frascinella told CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff.

Neighbors invited Frascinella to stay with them until she can make other arrangements.

The nearby town of Oakdale also was hard hit. A tree splintered and came crashing down on Michael McTeigue's house, and the rain just poured in.

"Loud, loud bang, definitely the loudest noise I've heard," McTeigue told CBS 2's Vanessa Murdock.

Through it all, most of the damage was either cosmetic or repairable. Fences, backyard canopies, branches were strewn all over. Islip Town Manager Tom Croci said there were no serious injuries.

"And that is paramount, that human life is safe and no one was in danger or injured," Croci said.

There was also blinding rain from the Long Island Expressway in Old Westbury, where motorists had to pull over on the expressway because they were unable to drive or see.

Park Street in Atlantic Beach was a temporary river, Gusoff reported. Knee-deep water was flowing down the main drag and flooded a restaurant where workers said lightning sounded like it hit right overhead.

Officials said the safest place to be during a tornado is in a basement. If no basement is available, seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building in an interior hallway or room such as a closet.