A tornado touched down as powerful storms moved over the South Shore of Long Island Thursday, destroying a nearby beach club and fueling a state of emergency declaration in Nassau County. The tornadic waterspout was spotted off Atlantic Beach in Nassau County, just across the Reynolds Channel fro m Far Rockaway, Queens. It came around the same time a tornado warning was issued for the area. Video showed the waterspout just offshore, heading toward land. National Weather Service teams are surveying the area later Friday but have already confirmed the tornado, based on radar and other evidence. Chopper 4 was canvassing the scene Friday morning. Debris littered the beach. Significant damage was apparent. As one person who witnessed the scene unfolding said, “Holy s***.” Radar data shows there was another rotation about a mile away, in the Rockaways, that may also have come ashore. The National Weather Service says it hadn’t received any damage reports as of Friday morning. As for the Sun and Surf Beach Club, officials got a call about severe damage, and that’s what they found. Parts of the club were torn to shreds, with 50 cabanas damaged by the powerful winds, officials said. One worker refused medical attention at the scene. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman declared a state of emergency as a result of the damage. The storms were triggered as a low-pressure system slid through the region, bringing pockets of heavy rain strong enough to trigger flash flooding for many in the New York City area. Streets flooded from East Meadow and Flushing, Queens, to Elizabeth and Bloomfield, New Jersey. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less