A powerful tornado tore through Atlantic Beach on Long Island on Thursday evening, striking just before 7 o'clock and turning a busy summer night at the shore into a scene of chaos and destruction. The storm slammed into two private beach clubs in Nassau County, Silver Point and Sun and Surf, both known for their picturesque oceanfront views and amenities, leaving them with extensive damage.
The timing made the strike especially frightening. Officials say there were about 100 people at the Sun and Surf Beach Club when the winds hit. Guests were in the dining room when the building began to shake, and they were quickly evacuated as the storm bore down. What followed was described by those inside as a terrifying experience, one they said only a force of nature could produce.
A board member of Sun and Surf who was in the dining room recounted the moment the storm arrived. He said he first thought it was a big jet because of the loud rumble, but then the building started to move and shake, and the windows were pounding in and out. Looking outside, he saw furniture from the cabanas and the deck area flying everywhere, prompting everyone to run to the middle of the room out of fear the glass doors and windows would shatter.
The physical toll on the clubs was severe. The beach club's cabanas were ripped to shreds and wooden planks were blown away, scattered across the property. Firefighters had to dig through the furniture and debris to make sure no one was trapped underneath. The force was strong enough that it blew the windows out of cars parked in the lot, underscoring just how violent the burst of wind had been.
Despite the scale of the damage, the human cost was remarkably light. Officials say one person suffered a minor head injury, an outcome many at the scene attributed to sheer luck given how crowded the popular club is during the summer. People described others sobbing and crying in the aftermath, devastated to see cabanas they had used for decades simply blown away.
Meteorologists moved quickly to characterize what had happened. The National Weather Service put out strong language confirming waterspouts that likely came ashore, which meets the definition of a tornado. Radar showed a telltale hook echo signature around 6:20, with the rotation riding the south shore of Long Island and moving into southwestern Nassau County, part of a larger system twisting from northern New Jersey through New York City.
The same storm system produced dangerous weather well beyond Long Island, with a large tornado and confirmed damage reported in Dover, Delaware, and rainfall coming down at two to three inches an hour. The National Weather Service is expected to conduct a survey at Atlantic Beach to formally confirm the tornado and determine its strength. For now, Sun and Surf is closed until further notice as it begins to assess the damage.