ALBANY – It was a freakish and destructive weather event on the first day of summer. The wind and rain began whipping up around 5:30 p.m. in Albany’s Warehouse District and right in the path of the storm was a four story brick building that went up at 12 Thacher Street more than a century ago.

“We have clearly a fourth story that collapsed onto itself,” said Rick LaJoy, Albany’s Building & Codes Director. “We have multiple collapse zones within the building. We know at least the large part of the building is going to have to come down. We’ll try to salvage the ends if possible but the building is so highly unstable, we’re unsure if any of it is going to be safe.”

Just up the street at 930 Broadway, there are 80 apartment units in another building where all residents were forced outside after water began pouring through the roof.

“I was up on three and I was getting ready to eat dinner and it sounded like a bomb went off,” said Adam Mohler. “I went out in the hallway and all my neighbors were out there and then the water started pouring in.”

Back on Thacher Street, Ethan Ballerd was sitting inside his SUV, waiting for the storm intensity to lesson. That’s when bricks began to fall.

“I was parked right over there by the building. I got in my car and that’s when it started raining really hard, the wind got bad,” he recalled. “All of a sudden I hear a loud noise, I looked behind me, and I was missing the back window.”

“We actually have several buildings throughout the city that have suffered quite a bit but the hardest hit area is right here,” LaJoy said.

The city of Albany issued a statement on Thursday night indicating that 18,000 customers across the city had lost power. By 10:30 p.m. half of those customers had been restored. National Grid crews are expected to work through the night toward full restoration.