The tornado leaves many without power.
After intense storms, power lines and trees toppling down in Elmira, New York recorded its first Tornado touchdown of 2012.
According to reports a state of emergency was declared Thursday evening when winds peaked as high as 110 mph and the tornado traveled 10 miles bringing down trees and power lines as well as bring down the buildings and town infrastructure. Isolated fires were being reported as well.
There are about 16,000 in Chemung County still without power.
Karen Miner, Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management Spokeswoman said, “New York State Electric & Gas is working through the night…to restore power and hopefully a lot of it will be on by tomorrow.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced utilities were being sent from western New York and Rochester to the Elmira to assist with the power restoration.
More severe thunderstorm warnings across the southern half of New York were issued by the National Weather Service and is to be moving eastward across the state.
According to Examiner New York was only one of 15 states that were impacted by the severe weather yesterday. The storm extended from Texas to as far as Connecticut, covering more than 1,500 miles. 92% of the severe weather reports consisted of damaging wind reports.
With only 15 confirmed tornadoes in New York this July, this may be the most inactive July tornado reports on record. The last July to hold the lowest number of tornados was back in 1950 for 23 reported tornados. With the month coming to a close, this year’s July will achieve the milestone.
