It's official, Riverdale storm was a tornado

Updated 8 p.m., 7/26

By Adam Wisnieski

The storm that passed through Riverdale yesterday, smashing tree limbs into houses, toppling whole trees onto cars, tearing up power lines and leaving some without a place to sleep, was the first tornado to hit the Bronx in more than 30 years, according to the National Weather Service.

The brunt of the destruction, created by winds around 100 mph, was felt by north Riverdale from Palisade Avenue to Fieldston Road, between West 254th and West 261st streets. Residents there reported broken windows from flying debris and smashed roofs from fallen trees. Ladd Road was hit extremely hard, with trees snapped in half and some completely uprooted.

A few visitors received minor abrasions due to broken glass at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, spokesman David Pomeranz said. There was also lawn furniture and trees sprawled all over the grounds, and a sculpture was damaged as well.

“I think it was a cyclone. It came in from west to east and then went north,” said Stuart Boynton, a resident of Palisade Avenue. A large maple tree was down in his backyard and many trees were missing their tops.

“This is like a wartime landscape,” he added.

Mr. Boynton is one of 100 customers still without power as of 3:30 p.m. on Monday, according to ConEd’s website.

The storm began at approximately 3:40 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. ConEd reported that 1035 customers in the Riverdale area were without power at 3:45 p.m.

“The radar suggests that it was not a tornado, that it was strong, straight-line winds associated with the thunderstorm,” a spokesman from the Office of Emergency Services said, adding that the storm is still under investigation.

Few streets remained blocked by downed trees as of Monday afternoon, though parts of Palisade Avenue north of Ladd Road are closed due to cleanup efforts.

Although the major damage is concentrated in North Riverdale, a tree crushed a green Saturn on Orloff Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights. The tree landed on power lines, but no one in the area reported a power outage.

Carlos — who declined to give his last name —witnessed the tree falling on Orloff Avenue. It started to rip out of the ground slowly at first, but then toppled as a bigger gust of wind came, he said.

Check for photos submitted by local residents on our blog, Riverdale Ramblings.