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It was part of a lingering series of thunderstorms that left hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents without power on Wednesday.
"If you were outside earlier today you saw the unbelievable storm that passed through our region, Atlantic City Police Department wrote on their Facebook page. "Thankfully, everyone is okay and they have a crazy story to tell."
According to the post, Police Sgt. Annese Parks happened to be in the right place at the right time to help a family by carrying a child off the beach. Besides the wind, sand and everything else, Parks had to dodge a falling light pole which struck her in the back, the post said.
Parks was not seriously hurt, police said.
Video from the beach == posted by Brandon Paisley -- showed Parks shielding a child in her arms, a mother hurriedly pulling a stroller off the beach and dozens of others fleeing with blankets and coolers as the windstorm stirred up sand.
On his Facebook page, Paisley wrote: "Thank yewwww 🤙🏻🤙🏼🤙🏽🤙🏾🤙🏿Atlantic City Police for helping us out of a sand storm 🌬 and Officer Parks for saving this family from a crashing street light. It (was) intense for 10 minutes of crazy winds I’m still eating sand.
A line of thunderstorms -- identified as a "derecho" by meteorologists -- ripped through Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey, tossing trees into homes and toppling live power lines. Nearly 200,000 electric customers were left without power shortly after the thunderstorms hit New Jersey in several waves.
Another series of severe thunderstorms is expected to sweep through the region late Thursday, according to the National Weather Service and meteorologist Joe Cioffi..
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