New York hit with power outages, fallen trees after severe thunderstorms

A round of severe thunderstorms ripped through the tri-state area Wednesday night and into Thursday, forcing down trees and knocking out power for thousands of residents, including those in New York City.

“While more than 90,000 New Yorkers have had power restored after last night’s storms, thousands remain without power,” New York Gov. Hochul said Thursday morning. “Utility emergency crews are hard at work to restore power as soon as possible. If you are still facing an outage, please report it to your service provider.”

Nearly 30,000 New Yorkers remained without power in the morning, and more than 8,400 were still affected as of Thursday evening.

Another 22,000 New Jersey residents and nearly 17,000 in Connecticut were also without power early Thursday night as temperatures hovered in the mid-80s.

The severe weather rolled in Wednesday evening, after New Yorkers struggled through days of suffocating heat — often times topping 90 degrees — and humidity.

The storms brought fierce winds, with gusts topping 60 mph as well as booming thunder and lightning, starting around 8:30 p.m. There were numerous reports of downed trees and wires throughout northern New Jersey and into New York.

In East Orange, N.J., a 30-year-old man was killed when a tree fell on him in his backyard, according to city officials.

The intense weather also snarled mass transit traffic, with Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North service affected. At one point, Metro-North’s Harlem Line was suspended from Valhalla to Hawthorne due to trees falling on tracks, while Hudson Line trains experienced delays of up to 40 minutes.

Relief came by way of a cold front, which triggered powerful storms across much of the tristate area. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for New York City, northern New Jersey, the Hudson Valley, Long Island and Connecticut throughout the evening, starting around 6:30 p.m. and lasting for about four hours.

Most of the leftover rain wrapped up by early Thursday morning in New York, bringing lower humidity and sunshine with highs in the mid-80s.

The pleasant weather is expected to remain through Friday, with rain set to return over the weekend.