Heavy thunderstorms pummel SU campus, area

Thunderstorms ripped through the Central New York area twice today, leaving residents in shock and local streets flooded.

I-81 shut-down. Marshall Street stores flooded. The National Weather Service issued tornado and flash flood warnings.

“In all my years living in Syracuse, I have never seen a storm like this,” said Sally White, a resident since 1975.

White was sitting in her home in the Westcott area when the storm started.

“The noise, the wind. It was a monsoon, the way I’d imagine a monsoon,” she added.

Marshall street flooded and Chiptole Mexican Grill put up a sign “closed due to flooding.”

The National Weather Service reported winds as high as 60 mph, and hail the size of quarters pelting down on the Central New York area.

SU broadcast journalism graduate student, Jon Wiener, was calling the Syracuse V. Georgetown softball game at the SU Softball Stadium when the storm started.

“I got a text from my news director saying ‘Rain is on the way,’ and I thought ‘Impossible, this is the best day to be at a ball park,’” Wiener said.

But, as soon at the lightning started, the game was called off, and those in the Press Box were asked to wait in the car as the storm passed.

“It was crazy. My truck was rocking back and forth, literally back and forth. I couldn’t even see an inch out the window, it was just sheets of water. I was scared — it looked like the apocalypse,” Wiener explained.

Video of Sumner Avenue by @LGrupp