NEW YORK - High wind, torrential rain and a tornado at the dawn of a stiflingly humid Wednesday caused widespread chaos for morning commuters, delayed flights at the region's three major airports and were blamed for at least one death.

The National Weather Service confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that the wild weather had included a tornado that touched down several times in Brooklyn.

The cyclone ripped off roofs as it dipped into the borough's Bay Ridge and Sunset Park neighborhoods at around 6:30 a.m. Meteorologists classified it as an EF-2 Tornado, with estimated wind speeds of 111 to 135 mph.

The rain flooded streets throughout the city, causing more havoc.

Confused commuters, turned away from train stations by police, jostled to get onto buses or hail taxis. Crews worked feverishly to pump out the subways with an eye toward the evening rush hour. But transit officials predicted more delays, especially for Queens and Brooklyn residents.

The airports had delays of up to an hour. And thousands of people lost electricity throughout the region for part of the day. By afternoon, the weather had delivered a double-whammy: temperatures in the 90s, with humidity pushing the predicted heat index over 100.

A woman on Staten Island died when “a car got stuck in an underpass and another car came along and hit hers,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

In severe weather elsewhere, North Carolina's largest electric utilities approached record demand as triple-digit temperatures across the Southeast strained electricity grids. In northern Illinois, more rain was headed for Rockford, a day after the governor declared a disaster area.

The utilities that power most of Alabama's home and office cooling systems set records as a heat wave bore down on that state. On Tuesday, Montgomery hit 101.

In Nebraska, 4 inches of rain fell in an hour. Authorities in Surprise reported the Big Blue River had overflowed and fish were swimming on state Highway 12.

In New York, howling wind and thunder competed with wailing security alarms from cars hit by trees. Street signs were wrapped around posts.

Lanie Mastellone awoke as her roof was coming off. Before escaping, she ran to get her late husband's wedding ring.

“It happened so quick. Maybe he was watching over me,” said Mastellone, who lives in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood.

The tearful woman got a kiss on the cheek from the mayor, who told her, “You're very lucky.”

“I'm sure it was a tornado,” said Daniel Chang, standing next to his Honda Accord, which was wrecked by a piece of his neighbor's roof. Eight houses on his street in Brooklyn's Sunset Park were severely damaged.

Everywhere, bedlam resulted from too much rain, too fast. Some suburban commuters spent a half-day just getting to work.

“I don't know that God had rush hour in mind when the storms hit,” Bloomberg said in Bay Ridge, where an industrial air conditioning unit the size of three refrigerators was overturned.