A Wall Under the Brooklyn Bridge Collapsed During Last Night’s Crazy Storm

Yesterday evening, New York saw one of those intense storms that makes summer in the city so memorable. The rain was sudden and absolutely torrential, and lightning cracked the sky for hours. Underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a facade suddenly collapsed, injuring five people.

The Associated Press reports that about 25 feet of the facade, a decorative piece of wall under the bridge on the Brooklyn side, collapsed just before 8 p.m. There was no significant structural damage to the bridge — other than, we guess, a piece of it falling off — but the Daily News reports that a family was hit by falling pieces of wall. The family was standing right under the facade when it came down. Their four-month-old baby was knocked to the ground and promptly scooped up by a stranger, apparently unharmed.

It’s still not entirely clear what caused the collapse, but the Department of Transportation is investigating.

Those of us in Brooklyn and Queens also got a beautiful but incredibly dangerous light-show over Manhattan:

A storm assaults New York City with lightning. (Photo by @GaryHershorn) pic.twitter.com/amPP7at9Pp

— Insider Images (@insiderimages) July 3, 2014

Gallery: Lightning lights up New York City’s skyline as storm approaches (pic: Gary Hershorn) http://t.co/d1avs1vxL7 pic.twitter.com/4D2XcIWcV5

— Telegraph Pictures (@TelegraphPics) July 3, 2014

Pictures of the day: Lightning hits the WTC in New York (Lucas Jackson/Reuters) http://t.co/mvkxK1kP3w pic.twitter.com/CiI83pGF8x

— Telegraph Pictures (@TelegraphPics) July 3, 2014

WOW! Lighting tonight in New York City, NY. Photo: Rafat Ali. #NYC #Lightning #NYwx pic.twitter.com/SX5mNn0lBa

— Mark Tarello (@mark_tarello) June 26, 2014

All this astounding weather is thanks to the effects of Hurricane Arthur, which is currently hulking over the Eastern seaboard messing with your holiday plans. Today, delightfully, there is still both a flash flood warning and a heat advisory in effect. The flash flood warning is in place until Friday morning, and the heat advisory until 5 p.m. today. Just stay inside and wait for the patriotic explosions to start tomorrow night.