the news is next. . right now, blown away by wild weather. wind gusts over 60 miles an hour topple trees and power lines with debris littering the city and the suburbs. good evening. i'm cindy hsu. thousands of people are still in the dark from last night's powerful storm. people in new jersey woke up to trees down and large branches outside their homes. one man still has a dead tree in his bedroom. in the bronx, the roof of a vacant home flew into the driveway and the street. and the winds also caused problems at a construction site in brooklyn. you can see scaffolding that is still hanging from a vacant building. we begin with meteorologist elise finch in the weather center. cindy, take a look at these winds. we told you there would be a high wind warning in effect starting at midnight last night. this is the reason why. we had 64 mile-per-hour wind gusts in beach haven, new jersey and at jfk.

staten island at 57. newark and stanford, 55 mile- per-hour wind gusts. as a result, it is no wonder we're seeing the significant damage we're seeing, including downed power lines in west orange, large trees and power lines down in farmingdale. tree fell onto a parked car, partial roof collapse. this is what we're talking about. the winds have died down significantly. we're looking at the winds right now, still gusty, but not horrible. 28 mile-per-hour gusts for monticello. 30 for white plains. 21 in central park. we have more interesting weather heading our way, talking about rain and even snow. cindy? >> elise, thank you. as elise just mentioned, that windy weather made a mess all across new jersey, toppling trees onto houses, even knocking out power for lots of people. cbs 2's valerie castro is live in elizabeth, where high winds are still a concern. valerie? >> reporter: cindy, as you mentioned, the winds have caused the usual problems. the downed power lines and the trees. but here in elizabeth, it's the steeple on this church behind

it's being watched very closely. that's the st. vladimir ukrainian catholic church. there a concerns the steeple is wobbling in high winds. >> windows were shattered, gutters ripped off, roof, water in the attic. >> reporter: winds gusting up to 60 miles per hour shook homes. >> next thing you know, i hear a scraping across the house and then the windows blew out. >> reporter: jose rodriguez, jr. felt the same thing in his room. the windows were ripped down by high winds, with it a tv and xbox tumbling. >> i saw that everything was just flying out. my first reaction was to get out of the room and head toward the basement. >> reporter: a normally quiet sunday morning, filled with the sounds of awnings and gutters now barely hanging on. the overnight storm brought lightning and hail pellets the size of pennies, blanketing cars and streets. air currents barreling through the area uprooted trees in newark. this one on palm street barely missed a park van.

area, as crews worked to clear trees and branches. in middletown, a dead tree landed on the haines family home. >> got up a little before 8:00, went to the rest room and this happened. >> reporter: and back out here live near the church, you can see elizabeth police still have the surrounding streets shut down. it is unclear when the streets will reopen. reporting live in elizabeth, new jersey, valerie castro, cbs 2news. >> valerie, thank you. tonight, communities across new york are cleaning up after winds caused serious damage across their neighborhoods. cbs 2 shows us the damage. >> reporter: we're standing in queens village, where people are calling this neighborhood a disaster. the wind took out a number of trees and several of these power poles snapped right at the base. this mess extends for several blocks. wind gusts of more than 60 miles per hour tore through 210th street by murdock avenue. this massive tree came crashing down across the road. >> we heard a big boom. that's when we came out and looked to see this huge tree was down.

least four cars, including this suv. >> i was shocked! i didn't know what to think. are you serious? >> reporter: power lines got dragged across this block and well beyond the intersection. a row of power and light poles instantly snapped. >> the power lines are down right across your property. >> yeah, the gentleman checked it and he said everything was okay. he told us not to touch anything. >> reporter: and more problems in howard beach. whipping winds blew this empty home off its pilings. part of it fell into the house next door. >> i heard a big loud crash and then my mom went downstairs and looked out the window. she was, like, oh, my god, the neighbor's house fell on us. >> reporter: on marine place in nassau county, crews have been working for hours to clear this uprooted tree. the wind ripped it out of the ground and pulled up the sidewalk several feet. >> i woke up to a big crash and my house shook. >> reporter: power lines started sparking in the roadway. >> it was a big ball of fire on the ground. >> reporter: power companies

storm victims say they need to heat up their homes on this frigid spring day. >> we have winter and we have 70-degree winter. now we're having spring and we have winter weather. >> reporter: crews say it could take days to clean up the damage. >> the storm is still affecting thousands of people across the tri-state area. in new jersey, more than 13,000 customers are without power. in connecticut, about 3300 customers are affected. long island has about 332 outages. in new york city, there are about 150 customers without power. now to a developing story out of pennsylvania. two people are dead, dozens more hurt after an amtrak train from manhattan slammed into a piece of construction equipment causing it to derail just outside philadelphia. cbs 2's hazel sanchez is live at penn station with more. hazel? >> reporter: yes, cindy. it happened in chester, pennsylvania, 15 miles outside of philly.

are residual delays and cancellations on trains from here and new york all the way down to wilmington, delaware. the ntsb has now taken over the investigation, trying to figure out why a maintenance crew was working on an active track. the front end of the amtrak passenger train was smashed like a tin can, windows blown out. the inside of one car left in a mangled mess. >> i woke up to it being thrown into the seat in front of me. window got blown out right beside me. >> smoky, nasty smelling smoke started coming in the train. people -- it was scary. >> reporter: it was just before 8:00 sunday morning. 341 passengers were aboard the train on route from new york to savannah, georgia. >> we got off-track and then it was a big explosion. then it was a fire, then windows bursted out and some people were cut up. >> it was minor injuries. some people were cut up and they were running out.

like an impact. and then it was, it was a rough ride. it took a long time to stop. all you could see was a lot of dirt and debris flying past the train. >> reporter: two amtrak workers, one on the backhoe, the other supervising nearby were killed. several passengers were injured by the impact and flying debris. amtrak declined to comment why the backhoe was on the track. senator chuck schumer says it shouldn't have been. now he is calling on amtrak to review its protocols. >> the protocols that amtrak has used in the past, which is a 20-step protocol before anyone can be on a track were not followed. it seems highly likely this was human error. >> reporter: the ntsb is leading the investigation, while amtrak tries to get travel schedules back to normal. >> if is scary, yeah. i think i'm going by train because it's safe. >> hopefully they will get more trains on the rails and get us home. >> reporter: the federal railroad administration is also at the scene of the derailment, assisting with the

the identities of the victims have not yet been released. live at penn station, hazel sanchez, cbs 2news. >> hazel, thank you. a disturbing discovery at a suburban park. police race to save a man dying near a boys & girls club. the crime that led to tragedy. >> plus, an emergency at an animal shelter. >> abby woman back wombach apologizing about. >> and today is opening day. will the royals retaliate after this brushback pitch six months ago?

later in sports. thick, black smoke filled

afternoon, as firefighters are still trying to put out the flames at a building fire. it started just before 4:00 this afternoon at a dry cleaner on 13th street in long island city. investigators say it quickly spread to a furniture store next door. the strong winds likely making it more difficult to stop. one firefighter received minor injuries and the cause of the fire is still unclear. police make a disturbing discovery near a park in westchester. officers went to lincoln park around 3:30 this afternoon after getting reports of gunshots. they found a man bleeding at the scene. he died at the scene. police are looking for the shooter. more information on the driver of a truck that prompted an evacuation last night in times square. 28-year-old ryan frasier was given 10 summonses after officers spotted his white box truck unoccupied with keys in the ignition on 46th street. there were also two gas cans and loose electrical wires in the front seat.

is due back in court on june 3. well, soccer star's apology. jail. her apology t fans. >> plus, when will spring return? waking up to a spring freeze.

facebook.com/cbsnewyork.

35-year-old abby wambach last night. she failed a field sobriety and breathalyzer test. she is now apologizing to family and friends and family, saying i take full responsibility for my actions. this is all on me. i promise to ensure i will do whatever it takes to ensure this horrible mistake is never repeated. a fire breaks out at an animal shelter in new jersey. the building is destroyed, but now the community is coming together to help displaced pets. cbs 2 is live in montclair with the story. >> reporter: cindy, dozens of animals were saved from this fast-moving fire today. take a look at the damage left behind. the fire chief tells me strong winds helped fan these flames. you can see all the damage done here at the back of the montclair, new jersey animal hospital. it is simply amazing that no humans or animals were seriously hurt. >> when i pulled up, i saw black smoke pouring out of the

>> reporter: montclair animal shelter volunteers describe the chaotic scene on sunday. >> there's a fire, fire! get the animals out! they called 911 and he started pulling animals out of the building. >> reporter: thankfully, volunteers were already at the shelter to walk the dogs and care for the cats. you can see the damage done to the building, the flames so intense they even spread to one shelter worker's car parked behind the building on north willow street in downtown montclair. >> could have been deadly. if it was in the middle of the night, it would have been gone. all the animals would have died. >> reporter: instead, 70 cats and dogs were saved and work. >> the volunteers lined up like a traveling line, started pulling animal after animal. every single animal got out. >> reporter: all 70 of those animals have now been placed in foster homes or at other shelters and they already have plans to rebuild here. next sunday. reporting live in montclair new

>> brian, great to see. thank you very much. elise finch is here with your exclusive cbs 2 forecast. i'm guessing people are yelling at you on the street! >> i didn't see anybody on the street here! >> too windy! >> nobody yelled at me, so that was good! although this weather had people yelling. this is sort of this wacky weather that we often see in spring. we're getting our taste of it, for sure. checking in with weather watchers, got a couple of 43- degree temperatures. temperatures on the cool side. this is for thomas in manchester township. he says it's 43 degrees. his comment, nasty thunderstorms with hail, crazy winds, but we finished up today quite nicely. that seems to be the sentiment. as we take a look at temperatures that are relatively cool, lower hudson valley, temps barely above freezing. this is walter in thompkins cove. 34 degrees where he is. his comment, what a complete turnaround from the weather this morning. it was a complete turnaround from what we had overnight and early this morning. lightning lighting up president sky. those thunderstorms and hail,

we've got tons of sunshine out there. it's clear, still windy, but 40 degrees is our current temperature. that was sort of the walking around temperature for most of the afternoon. winds out of the northwest at 22 miles an hour. still quite windy. 50 degrees will go down as the official high on the day. if you look at the time, we hit that at midnight. if you weren't up at midnight, seeing what the thunderstorms that had just gotten started, you didn't catch the high temperature for the day. 56 is where we should be. only got to 50 degrees today. again, that was very early in the morning. tomorrow, similar temperature, 51 degrees. again, more interesting weather for monday. then the temperatures actually dip heading into tuesday. they will not be rising for a couple of days. here's your vortex satellite and radar, showing things relatively quiet right now. we've got sunshine, but of course we're watching the next system. this one's going to be moving in. what does this system have for us? well, is there snow? short answer, yes, there is. we're not talking about damaging winds, but we are talking about snow starting early on monday morning. it looks to start like snow for most of us.

around the city, a little mixed precipitation. then it changes over to rain. now, 1:00, yankees home opener, people concerned, could see light showers there. what happens is we'll see more significant rain at 3:00, again at 6:30. then things finally start to clear out on monday night. so take a look. this is what we're expecting. most of us, rain. north of the city could see a coating to an inch. heading to our northern counties, we could see 1 to 3 inches of snow. as a result, we do have winter weather advisories that are in effect. we do have some freeze warnings in effect for new york city, long island, coastal areas. then freeze watches heading into new jersey. so for tomorrow, 51 degrees. it is going to be a little stormy start, snow and then rain. it is not a nice day. tuesday is nicer with sunshine, but it's going to be a little breezy and cool. then roller coaster continues for the remainder of the week. >> thanks, elise. you can get weather updates by downloading the cbs 2 weather app. get the forecast, check live radar and send us your weather pictures and videos.

still ahead, opening night for the mets in kansas city. >> plus, a final four recap sets the stage for the ncaa championship game is set.

sports. . the mets' season starts tonight. steve is here with sports. it is baseball season officially.

this is a sport that is full of tradition and pageantry, but there is an interesting story line developing for the mets as they visit kansas city. coming into play may be one of baseball's unwritten rules. the mets and the royals have been eying opening night, most likely for different reasons. for the mets, they are trying to get ready for the season, trying to move on from last year's loss in the world series. for kansas city, there was this. noah sundgaard's premeditated move. rumors circulate that the royals will retaliate tonight, but when and where is anybody's guess. pirates and cardinals facing off today. liriano 1-for-2 at the plate, struck out 10 in six scoreless innings. score one for the home team. pirates take the season opener over the cardinals by a final of 4-1.

villanova against power house top seed north carolina. the last time villanova was in the title game they shot a record 78% from the field. last night, they almost matched it. nova's shooting percentage was already the second highest in tournament history. last night, they shot 77% in a 44-point rout in tournament history. the clock finally struck midnight for syracuse. this year's cinderella squad reached the final four as a 10 seed, but they were outmatched by the only top seed left in the dance. north carolina wins convincingly, 83-66. villanova, north carolina in the championship game. >> that was just one of those games that could happen to anybody. i feel bad for oklahoma that it happened to them in the final four. i'm happy we have one of those games. we make every shot. >> i did not watch one second of villanova-oklahoma game today, even after we got here in the arena.

where there's no tv. from the best of what ncaa has to offer to the worst of the nba. nets taking on the pelicans without their top five scorers because of injuries. didn't matter because tim frasier made himself at home in brooklyn. how bad are the nets? i mean, that's an alley-oop. that's as bad of an alley-oop as it gets right there. it actually works. it actually goes in for three. except it was negated by offensive goaltending. yeah. that happened. the nets lose by 19, 106-87. final round of the houston open. for some, this is a tune-up leading to next week's masters. for others, it's their ticket to the masters. jim herman gets his first win after 106 pga starts. once he was an assistant at trump national in new jersey. he credits the donald for giving him his start. trump promised to make america great again. well, it's working for at least

next week's masters on cbs. arena football league opened in los angeles last night. this is how the new season started for the l.a. kiss, which are owned by gene simmons and paul stanley. the returner tracking down the kick, but he runs into the camera crew and gets caught up in all the wires. in an effort to make this game more exciting, the league has cameras actually on the field. >> oh, all right. >> the guy lost his camera in the middle of that. so there was no on-field camera the rest of the way. no place for the camera guys to go. >> hoping they are not hurt. they are not used to getting banged around like that. >> no helmets and pads either. >> true. >> thank you very much, steve. that does it for cbs 2news at 6:30. for the entire team, thank you for joining us.

see you then. is that coffee? yea, it's nespresso. i want in. you're ready. get ready to experience a cup above. is that coffee?

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ee ts stt pre isodon fs n.llheeronenr rsterwi dabits 809760 t/v captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> bill whitaker: i think americans think, crime and punishment. and punishment. you say punishment is not even part of the goal. >> no. >> in a german prison. >> no, not at all. >> so life inside prison mirrors life outside as much as possible. germans call it "normalization." this place is reserved for the