{"id":440038,"date":"2026-08-22T02:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/440038\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T02:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:36:30","slug":"witnesses-describe-terrifying-moment-tornado-hit-atlantic-beach-it-was-like-a-bomb-went-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/440038\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnesses describe terrifying moment tornado hit Atlantic Beach, “It was like a bomb went off”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Witnesses described the terrifying moments when a tornado hit Atlantic Beach on Long Island.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dan Nesci from Long Beach was with his family at the time, playing kickball and enjoying a picnic.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t really get the warning until five minutes before. It just snuck up on us,” Nesci said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said his kids were playing outside, and a minute later they were screaming for everyone to get inside.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I hear the parents screaming, ‘Get inside!'” said 11-year-old Anello Nesci.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ny-atlantic-beach-promo.jpg<\/p>\n

An apparent tornado or waterspout is seen near the Sun and Surf Club in Atlantic Beach, New York, on Aug. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

Daniel Novick<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people were near the Sun & Surf Beach Club at the time and took cover or evacuated. But they are grateful everyone was able to take cover and that no one was hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Definitely traumatic. There was a lot of chaos. The doors were all shaking and everything. I was able to pull one closed and then I ran out. I saw the disaster,” said Christopher Nappi.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Umbrellas started going up in the air, and that black thing was coming towards us. It was terrifying. All the people, it’s a family here,” said Denise Baumert, one of the owners of the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The height was substantial. It showed the power of it and the ferocity, just based on the sheer size, it was definitely intimidating,” Gianluca Lindh said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"westbrook-530am-vo-nass-wcbsit4n-hi-res-still-00-00-3721.jpg<\/p>\n

Damage in the aftermath of a tornado at the Sun and Surf Beach Club in Atlantic Beach on Long Island on Aug. 20, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daniel Nesci<\/p>\n

The tornado brought back frightening memories for Long Islanders who have lived through disasters in the past.<\/p>\n

“Haven’t seen anything like this since Sandy,” said Atlantic Beach homeowner Jack Hubbard. “[I’m] very upset.”<\/p>\n

“Things were blowing. It was like a bomb went off, and I remembered I lived through Hurricane Ian,” said chef Michael.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When you live at the shore, you know, almost any bad thing can happen,” said William Baumert, who was home at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now residents and workers in the area are picking up the pieces.<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s pretty unnerving,” said lifeguard Patrick Fitzgerald. “It almost felt like a ‘Wizard of Oz’ type of deal.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s tough, but we will be back,” Denise Baumert said. “It’s buildings. They can be fixed.”<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Witnesses described the terrifying moments when a tornado hit Atlantic Beach on Long Island. Dan Nesci from Long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,2890,4349],"class_list":["post-440038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-island","tag-tornado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}