Tornado touches down during storm in Massapequa, Amityville

PLEASE NOTE: THE ORIGINAL PUBLISH DATE OF THIS STORY WAS 8/25/06
The National Weather Service has confirmed that a low-grade tornado touched down in the Massapequa/Amityville area during Friday?s wild weather.
Residents say it sounded like a whip cracking outside their homes, and they reported some extensive damage after the storm had passed. Officials say Homestead Avenue in Amityville was one of the worst hit areas. Uprooted trees totaled cars, downed power lines and made the block impassable for hours. One home had its chimney ripped off.
LIPA officials say 22,000 were without power during the peak of the outage. County, village and LIPA crews worked through the night to clean up the mess.
Related Information: Wild weather wreaks havoc across Long Island