close
close

Yiamastaverna

Trusted News & Timely Insights

Tornado briefly reaches Buffalo, damaging buildings and knocking down branches
Iowa

Tornado briefly reaches Buffalo, damaging buildings and knocking down branches

BUFFALO, NY (AP) — A small tornado struck Buffalo on Monday, damaging buildings, overturning cars and throwing debris over downtown.

Shortly before 1 p.m., several videos captured a spiral column. One video showed the cell appearing to move from Lake Erie into the lakeside town, throwing pieces of roof through the air before quickly dissipating. The National Weather Service noted that the tornado began on the shore near where the lake meets the Niagara River and traveled a 1.40-mile (2.25-kilometer) path.

“It took everyone by surprise,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference.

Afterwards, photos showed a car lying on its roof in a parking lot, bent street signs and fallen branches on streets and sidewalks.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A statement from the weather service said the tornado was preliminarily classified as an EF-1 with estimated maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (145 km/h) based on damage to trees, “the displacement of several dozen rooftop air conditioning units, and the loss of roofing material on some multi-story buildings or apartment buildings.”

Poloncarz said a nursing facility damaged by the storm was evaluating whether patients could be moved. At a school, some windows were broken, several traffic lights were knocked out and some cars were overturned, Mayor Byron Brown said.

According to Poloncarz, this is the third tornado reported in Erie County in a month. On July 10, tornadoes were confirmed in the cities of Eden and West Falls. Two more tornadoes were reported in neighboring Genesee County the same day.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the tornado was spotted around 1 p.m., not 2 p.m.

The Associated Press

LEAVE A RESPONSE

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *