AMSTERDAM, NY -- Lindsay Phillips grew up in Syracuse's Eastwood neighborhood, studied meteorology at SUNY Oswego, and thought she would have an easy ride home to the Albany area Sunday. Instead, she had a wild ride and captured video that has since become a major hit on the internet and shown on television newscasts coast to coast.
"I'm just a weather geek from Syracuse, I was in the right place and had the right background to know that I needed to record this because I knew it was going to be important," Phillips said. She was on the Thruway headed back to Albany from a visit with family and a trip to the State Fair on Sunday. She pulled over near Amsterdam because the rain was so heavy and the lightning was so intense. As she was recording the storm on her cellphone, she realzied things were changing. "It was surreal," she said. "When I saw that funnel cloud, that is when I got a little scared because I was not expecting it to be a tornado and I was not expecting it to be that close to me," Phillips recalled.
She's taken calls from The Weather Channel, CNN and other media outlets. Friends are telling her they've seen the video and some people don't even realize that she is the one who recorded it. "I expected to get my fifteen minutes of fame maybe with the local media in Albany, but this is way beyond that," Phillips said. The SUNY Oswego graduate is now studying Computer Science at SUNY Albany and still hoping to land a job forecasting the weather. Phillips' YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/linalia features videos from her other adventures chasing storms out west, and a feature story on the tornado tattoo she had put on her back.
EARLIER VERSION:
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (AP) - The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down in the Amsterdam area, one week after Irene caused flooding and damage in New York.
A video of the storm crossing the Thruway is getting a lot of attention on YouTube.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says there have been no reports of serious injuries after the touch down Sunday. The weather service does confirm some damage in the Cranesville section of Amsterdam. Trees and power lines were knocked down.
Montgomery County, where Amsterdam is located, is among the counties eligible for federal disaster assistance after the tropical storm last week. At least 20 other counties are also eligible for funding.
