Large ice tsunami hits Hamburg, New York

A huge 'Ice Tsunami' or 'Ice Flood' hit the town of Hamburg, New York on February 24 and 25, 2019 as extremely high winds near 110 km/h (70 mph) push huge sheets of ice and water into the eastern shoreline of Lake Erie.

Strong southwest winds are causing a rapid rise of the lake water and ice, known as a seiche, on the eastern end of Lake Erie, pushing ice mounds as high as 9 m (30 feet) into residential properties in Hoover Beach and forcing voluntary evacuation for the lakefront neighborhood.

"We've had storms in the past but nothing like this," Dave Schultz, a Hoover Beach resident since 1970, said. "We've never had the ice pushed up against the walls and right up onto our patios… it's in my patio, the neighbor's patio, and the patio after that."

All but 32 customers in the Town of Hamburg have power, the Town of Hamburg Emergency Services said at 15:39 EST. Those 32 customers are in the Boston State Road/Brenner Rd area.

According to PowerOutage.US, 63 172 customers across the state are without power as of 20:15 UTC (15:15 EST), February 25.

Read more: 

Major power outage from the Midwest to the Northeast, more than 530 000 customers affected 

Featured image credit: StormChasingVideos, Simon Brewer