The National Weather Service confirmed Friday morning that a tornado touched down in Atlantic Beach as severe storms tore through Long Island Thursday evening, destroying 50 cabanas at a beloved Nassau County beach club.

More than 100 guests were inside the Sun and Surf Beach Club when powerful winds ripped through the property, tearing apart cabanas and sending furniture and debris flying.

Brian Shlonsky has the latest on the damage at Atlantic Beach.

The National Weather Service said Friday that radar data, video and damage reports confirmed a waterspout came ashore as a tornado on the far west end of Atlantic Beach between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Thursday.

The NWS said the waterspout likely paralleled the far southeastern portion of the Rockaways near the mouth of the East Rockaway Inlet before coming onshore.

Video captured the spinning column of air and water approaching the shoreline.

A waterspout appeared to form off of the south shore of Long Island on Thursday.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman toured the Sun and Surf Beach Club in Atlantic Beach on Friday morning, littered with large pieces of wood ripped from torn up cabanas.

"There was extensive damage as you can see behind me, a lot of those very, very big beams were knocked down," Blakeman said. "There was a tremendous amount of debris, it was a dangerous situation."

A beach club employee suffered a minor head injury, but they refused medical aid, and no other civilian or first responder injuries were reported, the Inwood Fire Department chief fire marshal said.

Blakeman said first responders immediately launched a search for any injured.

"The first thing they did was go cabana by cabana to make sure no one was trapped," Blakeman said, adding they did it twice to ensure there were no additional victims. "We are very very fortunate again that no one was injured."

Officials said the storm passed within minutes but the cleanup could take time.

Sun and Surf Club President Bill Baumert said "it would be very disappointing for a lot of people" if the club could not reopen this year.

"Not everything here was destroyed," he said. "We will bounce back."

Lifeguard Daniel Moran could not believe how much destruction the tornado caused in just minutes.

"It's unbelievable, worked here almost 30 years and I don't even think there was that much destruction during Sandy," Moran said.

Jill Kaplan works at the nearby New York Beach Club and said she saw chairs flying in the air and coming toward people "like daggers."

The club used bulldozers on Friday to help clean up and expressed gratitude that nobody on Atlantic Beach lost their lives.

"We've been through a lot and there's nothing like this community here, you know, my members all reached out, 'what can we do to help?' And this is a beautiful community, and we're strong, and we got through it," Kaplan said.

Blakeman said there was other damage in the county, mostly downed trees and power lines. Flooding on the north and south shores, and several people trapped in vehicles in Elmont and Valley Stream. A roof was blown off a building in Stewart Manor.

Blakeman declared a state of emergency and activated Nassau County's Emergency Operations Center following the storms.

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