Storms spawn possible tornados, kill Pa. woman

Tornados may have touched down in New Jersey and New York City yesterday, as the high winds of a volatile storm system toppled hundreds of trees and knocked out power for thousands.

Eastern Pennsylvania was largely spared, getting some strong gusts but mostly some much-needed rain.

But storms cut a swath through New Jersey and into New York City, where a woman from Central Pennsylvania was killed by a falling tree.

In Plumstead Township, Ocean County, N.J., the storm - perhaps aided by a twister - downed about 300 trees, damaged nine or 10 houses, and bent or snapped telephone poles, according to a National Weather Service report. A tornado warning for the area was issued by the weather service at 6:09 p.m.

In Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, Mayor Wilda Diaz declared a state of emergency, after the storm - including a funnel cloud captured on video - brought gusts up to 73 m.p.h. that downed trees, broke windows and disrupted electric service for more than 5,000 PSE&G customers there.

Investigators will visit those areas today to determine if tornados did touch down, said meteorologist Greg Heavener of the weather service's Mount Holly office.

Strong straight-line winds will topple trees in one direction, but with tornados, "you'll have trees falling down in different directions within a couple of yards of each other," Heavener said.

Investigators also will hunt for eyewitnesses.

Also hard hit was Salem County, N.J., which still had 1,900 customers without power this morning - the lion's share of the 3,000 Atlantic City Electric customers offline in New Jersey.

PSE&G, the state's biggest utility, had only about 400 customers off statewide this morning, after restoring power to most of Perth Amboy.

Tornados may also have touched down Thursday evening in New York City, where trees fell, roofs were ripped from homes, train service was disrupted, and at least 30,000 homes and businesses lost power.

Queens - which was under a tornado warning along with Brooklyn and Staten Island - was hardest hit, with 90 percent of the outages.

That's also where Iline Levakis, 30, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was killed when a tree fell on her parked car. Mechanicsburg is just south of Harrisburg.

Funnel clouds were sighted in Western Pennsylvania's Erie County, but no injuries or damage were reported.

No rain is forecast for the Philadelphia area for the weekend.

For the latest forecast, go to http://go.philly.com/weather.