Viral Video: Deadly lightning rips through New York

Storms ripped through the Northeast, killing at least two people as they unleashed strong winds and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers, authorities said Friday.

The video above shows the lightning that illuminated New York City Thursday night. But it hardly ended there. At one point Thursday night, severe thunderstorm watches were in effect for a continuous stretch from Oklahoma through New Jersey.

In Pennsylvania, a tree crushed a woman in her car as she sought shelter at a campsite, killing her, said Glenn Dunn, the emergency management coordinator for Potter County.

A 61-year-old man in Brooklyn, New York, died after lightning struck a church, sending a scaffold crashing down on him Thursday, authorities said.