A tornado tore down walls and knocked out some power lines in Breezy Point, Queens.
A tornado ripped through a beach club in Queens on Saturday, one of several outbursts of severe weather across the New York region that flooded roads, felled power lines and forced the delay of the United States Open.
The swirling column of wind and water, captured by dozens of people on cellphone cameras and almost instantly posted on the Internet, lasted only minutes, according to witnesses, but in that short time it tore down walls, lifted roofs off homes and tangled power lines as it cut a path through the Rockaways, near Breezy Point.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who arrived in Breezy Point on Saturday afternoon to assess the damage, said there had been no reports of injuries.
Helen Vesik, 58, was in her cabana at the Breezy Point Surf Club when she saw what she described as a white water spout form over the ocean around 11 a.m. She said it was about 15 feet wide and it was speeding in her direction.
“I was afraid, and I knew I had to go,” she said.
Ms. Vesik ran to the main club house just as the tornado touched down in the club’s pool, sending streams of water into the air.
She said she crouched on the bathroom floor as the wind passed.
When she emerged, part of a concrete wall near the pool had been toppled. Barbecue grills and beach chairs had been flung across the grounds, hundreds of feet from where they had been when the storm hit.
Janet Ryan, 56, still shaken as she sorted through her cabana, pointed across the softball field. “Our roof is over there against the center-field fence,” she said.
Brian Ciemnecki, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, said the tornado had touched down at Breezy Point. The Weather Service had yet to confirm its strength and duration.
The severe weather was expected to continue throughout the day and into the evening as a cold front moving in from the west made its way into the area, meeting up with the warm moist air ahead of it and causing instability in the atmosphere.
The storm delayed the start of the United States Open for more than an hour and forced the women’s singles final to be postponed until Sunday.
The Weather Service issued five tornado warnings, covering parts of Queens, Westchester County and Rockland County in New York and Fairfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut.
There were reports of severe storms and high winds from storm cells causing damage across the region, from Scranton, Pa., all the way to Buffalo, according to the Weather Service.
In addition to the high winds, Mr. Ciemnecki said, people could expect severe thunder storms, heavy rains in some places and even the possibility of hail.
“Be aware tonight,” Mr. Kelly said. “There is not much damage so far, but of course we need to keep watching out the rest of the afternoon and evening.”
Christopher R. Miller, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said there had been 10 reports of minor damage in Queens and in Canarsie, Brooklyn.
There were sporadic power failures, he added.
While people in the Rockaways are no stranger to severe weather, having dealt with the extreme flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene a year ago, the storm on Saturday was unlike anything many had ever seen.
Donna Sullivan, who lives in Breezy Point, said she had watched the spout lift kayaks 40 feet out of the water.
“It was a natural weather phenomenon; I was shocked,” she said. “You’re in awe until you realize it’s dangerous.”
Joe Kimmeth, 16, a lifeguard at the club, took shelter in the club’s cinder-block lifeguard shack as the tornado approached. He saw the tornado pass 10 feet in front of him, he said, and set down briefly in the pool.
“It was spiraling in the pool, and the shack began to shake,” he said. “It was pretty scary, actually. It came right over us.”
Colin Moynihan and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
