Rare tornadoes struck New York City and Long Island on Thursday evening, as severe weather drenched parts of the Mid-Atlantic and disrupted traffic on some major highways.
Two waterspouts — columns of air and moisture that spin over water — appeared off southern Queens in New York City and Nassau County on Long Island before moving onshore as tornadoes, said John Murray, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
The Queens tornado came ashore in the eastern Rockaways, south of Kennedy International Airport, the agency said.
The Long Island tornado damaged cabanas and buildings at Sun and Surf Beach Club in the village of Atlantic Beach in Nassau County, prompting it to temporarily close, the resort said on social media.
The tornado damaged about 50 cabanas and pulled apart roofing and walls, said Josiyah Green, the fire chief in Inwood, a hamlet in Nassau County. One person suffered a minor head injury, Mr. Green told reporters.
There were reports of people trapped in their vehicles because of flooding but none of serious injuries, Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, said on social media.
Pictures and footage shared with The New York Times by residents of Far Rockaway and Atlantic Beach showed funnel-shaped clouds near a waterfront.
Aleia Scoville, 32, said that she had received an emergency alert for tornado warning on her cellphone at around 6:45 p.m. A few minutes later, she looked out a window of her Queens apartment to see a large rotating column of air in the ocean appearing to move toward Atlantic Beach.
Once the vortex reached land, large pieces of debris were thrown into the air from what appeared to be a beach club, she said. After making landfall, it became smaller and began moving back toward the ocean.
Emergency and rescue vehicles soon began driving to the area where the tornado had made landfall and crews were still there hours later, she said.
“Seeing a tornado in person was something I never expected, and watching it move from the water toward the shore was absolutely surreal,” she said in a phone interview early Friday.
Tornadoes are a “rare occurrence” for New York City and Long Island, though their strength and duration typically pale in comparison to those in the Central United States, Mr. Murray said. The Atlantic Ocean moderates air and sea temperatures in the area, preventing the intense atmospheric instability required to fuel tornadoes, he said.
A tornado also touched down on Thursday near Dover, Del., the Weather Service said. The authorities in Dover, the state capital, had declared a state of emergency and urged residents to stay home. The storm caused power outages and downed trees but there were no reports of significant injuries, the Dover Police Department said.
In New York City, the authorities briefly closed the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway because of flooding. The Long Island Expressway was closed in both directions at Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens and there were delays for eastbound traffic on the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
Tornado and flash flood warnings were issued on Thursday for parts of New York City. The Weather Service later said that the threats had passed.
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