
Unrelenting winds tearing across the eastern US have created a rare 'ice tsunami' in upstate New York.

A powerful windstorm Sunday broke an ice boom in Lake Erie and allowed the blocks of ice, which were floating on the water at the mouth of the Niagara River, to spill over a retaining wall and onto the shore and the roadway above.

Stunning video shows the cascading blocks of ice forming a massive barrier along the Niagara River Parkway outside of Buffalo, towering some 30 feet tall.

Nearby in the town of Hamburg, a voluntary evacuation was issued for residents living on the shore of Lake Erie as the massive mounds of ice crawled right up to people's homes.

The clip, filmed near Fort Erie in Ontario, Canada, captures the massive pieces of ice as they are pushed onto land from the vast lake

A huge stack of the frozen blocks can be seen piled up around Lake Erie as even more slabs are pushed into them from behind by the wind

Fierce winds tearing across the eastern US have created a rare 'ice tsunami' on the shore of Lake Erie in upstate New York

A powerful windstorm Sunday broke an ice boom in Lake Erie and allowed blocks of ice, which were floating on the water at the mouth of the Niagara River, to spill over a retaining wall and onto the shore by the US-Canada border

A family walks near a massive build up of ice that was pushed onto the shore of Mather Park in Fort Erie, Ontario, on Monday

Stunning video from the Niagara Parks Police Service shows large chunks off ice from Lake Erie being pushed up over a retaining wall along the Niagara River Parkway outside of Buffalo, New York on Sunday

High winds howled through much of the nation's eastern half for a second day Monday, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, closing schools, and pushing dramatic mountains of ice onto the shores of Lake Erie.

Wind gusts of hurricane force - 74 mph (119 kph) - or higher were reported around the region, including West Virginia and New York. A motorist in Sandusky, Ohio, captured video of a tractor-trailer flipping over on a bridge .

Toppled trees and power poles, easy targets for strong winds that uprooted them from ground saturated by rain and snowmelt, plunged homes and businesses into darkness, though in most places power was expected back quickly as winds died down by the end of Monday. Hundreds of schools were delayed or canceled in New York alone.

The wind peeled off roofs in places. In Syracuse, New York, scaffolding blown off a building knocked down power lines.

Wind advisories and warnings were in effect through Monday in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast up to northern New England.

Giant chunks of ice spilled over the banks of the Niagara River across from Buffalo on Sunday, creating a jagged, frosty barrier known as an 'ice tsunami' between the river and a scenic road.

Ice tsunamis, formally known as an 'ice shoves', occur when strong gusts of wind blow chunks of ice off a body of water and they accumulate on land, tearing down anything in their path.

One man who stopped to photograph the strange sight wrote on Twitter: 'This ice tsunami is one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed. Starting to bulldoze trees and street lamps.'

The Niagara Parks Police Service shared a video of the ice tsunami on Sunday and warned anyone in the area to drive carefully.

Lakefront properties in Hamburg, on the eastern shore of Lake Erie, were placed under voluntary evacuation orders on Sunday as a massive wall of ice encroached on the community

Hamburg emergency crews have been going door to door to check on residents of the 88 properties under threat

A voluntary evacuation was issued Sunday afternoon for residents of the Hoover Beach neighborhood in Hamburg, which sits on the eastern shore of Lake Erie.

'We've had storms in the past but nothing like this,' Dave Schultz, a Hoover Beach resident of nearly 50 years, told WGRZ.

'We've never had the ice pushed up against the walls and right up onto our patios. It's in my patio, the neighbor's patio, and the patio after that.'

Hamburg emergency crews have been going door to door to check on residents of the 88 properties affected by the voluntary evacuation.

The National Weather Service in Buffalo has issued a wind advisory in effect until Monday night, warning that winds could reach up to 75 mph.

'Strong wind gusts will bring down trees and power lines and result in numerous power outages,' the agency said. 'Minor property damage is also possible, especially to roofs and siding. Travel in high profile vehicles will be very difficult at times.'

Hamburg officials have asked that the public stay clear of the area affected by the ice tsunami if possible

A man photographs a massive wall of ice that was blown onto the shore of Mather Park in Fort Erie, Ontario on Monday