Late Sunday afternoon, Beverly Oudt watched the sky grow dark from her home in Scotia. She’d heard there might be possible thunderstorms, but she was shocked as the wind whipped, rain fell in a sheet, and trees swayed.

“I never saw such a freak storm,” Oudt said at Rivers Casino in Schenectady a few hours later.

When the storm passed, she said it took her half an hour to travel to the casino because of roads closed to restore electricity. The storm only lasted about ten minutes.

“Thank goodness it wasn’t longer or the damage would be much more,” she said.

Thunderstorms with winds as high as 50 miles per hour slammed the Capital Region late Sunday afternoon, with Scotia, Schenectady, Niskayuna and Clifton Park reporting widespread damage. More than 10,000 people lost power and many were still in the dark hours later.

Christina Speciale, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, described Sunday's hot and muggy weather as "food for thunderstorms" that were the "right amount of ingredients" for the severe weather. Because the affected area is so populated, the damage was significant.

"Those winds had a lot of things to hit," Speciale said.

Trees fell on cars, houses and businesses. A fallen tree crushed the sign of iconic Mike’s Hotdogs on Erie Blvd. in Schenectady.

Down the road at Rivers Casino, heavy rain overwhelmed a storm drain on an outdoor patio. A video circulating on social media showed a deluge of water by the outdoor slot machines, none of which were damaged, said Justin Moore, general manager of Rivers Casino.

The wind also blew a tent large enough to hold 200 people in the air and when it came down, a metal post went through a lobby window and shattered the glass. No one was injured, Moore said.

"The storm was very strong, a lot of rain in a very short amount of time," Moore said.

Driving around the area, he saw trees downed everywhere.

Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy called on firefighters and extra crews to clean up fallen branches and barricade roads.

Hours later, some roads were still closed as National Grid worked to restore power. On Grand Boulevard, two National Grid trucks - one with a spotlight on top to lead the way - wound their way through the eerily dark neighborhood.

National Grid reported that the nearly 1,000 customers in that area wouldn't see power come back on until 7 a.m. Monday. Nearly 3,000 in Scotia and north also will have to wait until morning for power to be restored.