New York - 1 Dead in Dangerous Storm

Winds whipped across the Tri-State on Wednesday as the region wrestled with a day of heavy rain and severe weather that downed trees — killing at least one person, knocked out power and slowed commuters.

Fifty mile per hour wind gusts and heavy rain are expected to last into the evening. A wind advisory was in effect for the Tri-State until 3 p.m. Thursday.

The wind and rain was too much for several trees in the Tri-State. One came crashing down onto a car in West Milford, N.J., killing one person and injuring another, 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reports.

Another tree toppled over in Leonia, N.J., forcing the blocking off of a road at Grand View Terrace.

“From the street it looks like a few branches simply fell on the roof of a home, but from the back you can see that an entire tree snapped and landed on a home,” CBS 2′s Elise Finch said.

Firefighters said it ripped a hole in the roof and smashed a beam in the kitchen. Fortunately no one was injured because no one was home at the time.

The homeowners were at work when they received the call of the damage, and afterward they were packing because they had to leave. There was no word on how long they would have to stay outside the house.

“Major structural damage, broke through the ridge beam. No one was home. No one was injured. At this point we’re just trying to secure all the utilities and salvage as much of the property as possible,” one firefighter said.

Power was knocked out to thousands across the Tri-State area. Con Ed was reporting nearly 1,300 customers without power, PSE&G had 11,000 without power — mostly in Middlesex, Jersey Central Power and Lighting had 18,500 outages and LIPA was reporting 3,199 outages mostly in Hempstead.

High winds cause the city to put travel restrictions into effect  on some bridges. Trucks and motorcycles are not permitted on the Verrazano-Narrows, RFK, Throgs Neck, and Whitestone bridges because of high wind gusts. A 35-mph speed restriction is also in effect on those spans.

Major delays were also being reported at area airports.

In the Big Apple, buildings officials have also put the word out to contractors and property owners to secure their construction sites – scaffolding, cranes, hoists and anything else that could blow around.

“We’re looking at noon as a critical time where we could see some showers and thunderstorms developing. And then by the afternoon rush, parts of the area to the west may see a break and we’ll have lingering heavy rain for the twin forks,” said CBS 2HD meteorologist Elliott.Wednesday’s high will reach 60, which is higher than the normal 48 and short of the record 70 set in 2006.

“The saving grace is that it’s pretty mild today,” said Elliott. “Overnight tonight into Thursday we’ll start to see drier air, but it will be quite a bit cooler.”

A flood watch was in effect north and west of the City until Thursday morning where an excess of two inches of rain was possible. This alert is issued when when flooding is possible but not imminent.

CBS NY