Nearly 100,000 Without Power On LI; 78 MPH Wind Gust Recorded

UPDATE 6:20 p.m.: More Than 300K Without Power On Long Island

UPDATE 2:20 p.m. — There are now more than 95,000 PSEG Long Island customers without power. A 78 mph wind gust was recorded at Republic Airport in Farmingdale at 1:53 p.m.

Sustained winds of 45-55 mph with gusts of 60-70 mph will continue into the evening.

For your protection, move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building, the weather service says. If in a place that is near large trees, in a mobile home, upper floors of a high rise building, or on a boat, consider moving to a safer shelter before the onset of strong wind.

Long Island Rail Road service is suspended systemwide due to high winds and hazardous conditions, including fallen trees, downed utility poles and power outages, the railroad said on its website at 2:24 p.m.

A fallen tree knocked down wires over LIRR tracks in West Hempstead. (Photo by Vashti Anderson)

Send photos or videos of storm damage to ryan@patch.com and note the location.

LONG ISLAND, NY — A tornado watch is in effect for Long Island until 4 p.m. Tuesday. Numerous tornadoes associated with Tropical Storm Isaias have occurred over portions of the mid-Atlantic coast Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

There's about a 10 percent chance of a tornado on Long Island, according to the National Weather Service.

Wind gusts up to 70 mph are possible Tuesday afternoon and evening. About 175,000 people have already lost power in New Jersey, where a tornado touched down near Atlantic City. On Long Island, PSEG said fewer than 1,000 of its customers had lost power shortly before noon, according to its outage map, but the company is warning that the storm "has the potential to cause a significant number of power outages."

PSEG added, "We now anticipate that this storm may be one of the strongest to reach our area in years and some outages could last for an extended period."