The National Weather Service confirmed Friday what Long Island's shoreline already knew: a tornado touched down at Atlantic Beach during Thursday evening's storms, and it started life as a waterspout over the Atlantic Ocean before walking ashore. Images posted from the barrier beach show a large funnel cloud over the water and small buildings at a beach club torn apart. [1][3]

The club took the worst of it. Sun and Surf reported significant building damage and closed both it and nearby Silver Point; Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman declared a state of emergency, sent a search team through the cabanas to make sure no one was trapped, and confirmed no serious injuries or deaths. His office also logged first responders pulling drivers from flooded vehicles on the south shore. [2]

Survey crews were scheduled to walk the Delaware and Long Island damage paths Friday to rate each tornado's strength, which means the official verdict arrives days after the videos did. [1] The same stalled system drowned Jersey City's commute and shut part of the Long Island Expressway in Queens in both directions. [1][3]

A waterspout that makes landfall simply renames itself; the destruction does not wait for the taxonomy. By Saturday the deck chairs will be stacked, the claims filed, and the rating pinned to a map nobody outside meteorology will read. The ocean keeps its own schedule.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York