BUFFALO, NY — A small tornado Buffalo was caught in a natural disaster on Monday, damaging buildings, flipping cars and sending debris flying through downtown.
Shortly before 2 p.m., multiple videos captured a spiraling column. One video showed the cell moving from Lake Erie toward the city, which is located on the lakeshore. Pieces of roofing flew through the air, and then the column quickly disappeared.
“It took everyone by surprise,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said at a news conference.
Afterward, photos showed a car on its roof in a parking lot, bent street signs and fallen tree limbs on roads and sidewalks. After assessing the situation, a National Weather Service crew confirmed that a tornado had touched down on the city’s west side.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Poloncarz said a nursing home damaged by the storm was considering relocating patients. A school suffered damage to some windows, several traffic lights were broken and several cars were overturned, Mayor Byron Brown said.
It’s the third tornado reported in Erie County in a month, Poloncarz said. Three weeks ago, tornadoes were confirmed in the towns of Eden and West Falls.