IDK, was it a tornado?

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September 18, 2010 by Darlene McC

I always know when something has made the news at home, because my mother calls at 6:30 in the morning freaked out of her mind when she “heard that _____ happened {somewhere in NYC} and she’s terrified that I’m dead.”

Good news: I’m not.  And I almost missed the whole thing.

I’ve started work on what seems to be a new annual commitment for me, The Gravesend Inn Haunted Hotel, and on the fateful weather day I was in the bowels of the theatre working my way through dusty costume shop.  There’s no weather in the stuffy, slow-moving air filled with mold and the reek of old fabric.  I had no idea what was going on above me; but I happened to pop my head up and hear the thunder.

I ended up standing next to John Huntington and his (very wet) phone while he recorded the gale.  Everyone and their brother has been posting their pictures, and there are some great ones on Gothamist, but this video almost made my teeth hurt.  I had to watch it in three sittings because I could feel my IQ dropping (almost the way I feel when I watch Jersey Shore).

Don’t worry mom.  I’m not dead.

Update: 9/18 – 10:30 am

The just announced on NPR that there was not one, but TWO tornadoes: one in Brooklyn and one in Queens.  There was also a Macroburst: a storm burst with winds over 100 mph and over 2 miles wide.  They mark the 9th and 10th tornadoes to hit NYC since 1950.