"NEW YORK -- Hundreds of century-old trees lay snapped in half and uprooted throughout Central Park on Wednesday after a severe thunderstorm with winds as high as 80 mph barreled through the city overnight.

''I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City,'' Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. ''It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees.''

The storm swept through the area Tuesday night, snapping some of the park's famous American elm trees in half while uprooting others. One tree lay across the tennis courts at West 96th Street, and a few lampposts stood at a slant after trees crashed into them."

Suzanne Ma reports for the Associated Press August 19, 2009. [2]