While I'm focusing on Hurricane Bill right now, the thunderstorm that come through New York City last night was truly amazing. Looking west from my home at the city there appeared to be almost constant lightning.

Apparently it caused some major damage to my favorite part of the city:

Storm Toppled Scores Of Trees In Central Park (NY Times)

Pretty crazy weather we've been having around here this summer. . .

I was just reading that article earlier since I spent many an hour strolling around Central Park. It's a bit sad to contemplate that many of these magnificent trees have been destroyed. What will be even worse is if curious people get injured or killed by toppling trees or broken limbs hung up in other branches by walking around underneath these damaged areas. Many folks probably just aren't aware of the danger, while others might know, but just can't resist getting a closer look or maybe even flirting with danger.

Anyway, even in the middle of a concrete jungle like Manhattan is not immune to periodic bursts of Mother Nature's power.

just a few minutes ago the warnings sounded in Minneapolis and "something" formed down by the lake at the end of my street and did a lot of damage near the city center,trees down,roof off homes.
no sweat here but i left my car window down,not prepared i guess--
i just went to google and i see it made the news--

We had a few thunder storms in Ontario yesterday from Toronto area to just north of Orillia.
Plenty of people with no power today, hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
These are not even tornadoes or hurricanes, just thunderstorms.

Edit:
Correcting myself. A small tornado did touch down at Orillia, but the storms were the big thing.

I was in the city (New York) the night of Aug 18 when the storm hit, on the 9th floor over looking the east river an amazing lightning display, the next day the the news reported the damage and loss of very old trees in Central Park. Not all of the city is concrete and steel, who would think that the park would be so vulnerable.

I saw that damage to Central park. Tough break. pardon the pun. Love a good lightening show. Up high and protected even better.

Welcome to forum.

I remember seeing the damage that Juan did in Halifax.

All of those fine, century-old trees lying in the streets -- it made me a little sick. I guess it was personal -- I had been there only a few months before.

But part of me was surprised as well. There was adequate warning; why didn't people try to anchor down those trees?

Maybe, as a country dweller, I have a different perspective. When severe weather is coming in, there's nobody but me to take responsibility and batten things down (usually at 2:00 in the freaking a.m.).

Anyway, I know you can't do everything, but as a homeowner, or someone who cares about their beautiful neightbourhood, why wouldn't you organize some cable and metal stakes, and preserve the magnificent gems right in front of your property?

Welcome to my world. Down here in the tropics we deal with severe thunder storms all summer long. They are frequent and can easily carry tornadic activity. A weather radio with SAME technology is great to have around if you have the patience to program it. However, I've found targeted email updates from Emergency Mail or MyCast to be just as helpful and timely. Sometimes working deep inside concrete buildings might keep us insulated from changing conditions we need to be aware of. Updates to a smart phone or Blackberry (thank you Canada) is an easy way to stay on top of it.

Craig.

Thanks for the welcome!

So far the hurrican season is by-passing Long Island, NY.
We have had some big storms here, the last was Gloria, uprooted old 100+ year old trees. The island has above the ground wires, therefore we loose electricity. In the early infrastructure planning of LI, the utility company planted trees along side its utility polls. What were they thinking?