A sudden, intense storm whipped across New York on late Thursday, tearing down trees and powerlines and leading to the death of one person. The storm, packed in a smallish, black cloud moving swiftly across the city, tore roofs off houses and uprooted large trees in Brooklyn. In Queens, one person died after a tree hit a car. "Our role is transport people when they are injured," a spokesman for the New York City Fire Department told AFP, adding that no transport took place "from that location because it was a death." More than 26,000 people in Queens lost electricity and about 5,000 in Staten Island, energy company Con Edison said on its website. Barrages of lightening, then a heavy downpour accompanied the storm. More heavy weather was forecast during the night in the area.