$1 |LI EDITIONMondayAug. 29, 2011

COPYRIGHT 2011, NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND, VOL. 71, NO. 360

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Jamie Young,Shawn PizzoandMohammedHasidi row downSmith Street inPatchogue.

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BY JENNIFER SMITHjennifer.smith@newsday.com

Irene swamped neighborhoods, up-ended trees and turned out the lightsfor hundreds of thousands of Long Is-land utility customers, many ofwhom may go days without power.

With rail systems still shudderingback to life and some roads impass-able or without working traffic sig-nals, it remained unclear just when —and how — many in the region wouldget back to work today.

The Long Island Rail Road will re-store service to more than half of itslines beginning this morning after re-moving trees and utility poles fromits tracks, officials said.

While the stormwas not as destruc-tive as many had feared, emergencyresponse officials assessing the im-pact yesterday reported damagethroughout the region.

“The worst is behind us,” Gov. An-drewM. Cuomo said at a news confer-ence in Long Beach.

But power outages — Long Island’sworst in 26 years — and flooding re-mained the top concerns in Irene’s af-

termath, he said.In Long Beach, storm surge ripped

the lifeguard station on the beachfrom its mooring and swept it upagainst the boardwalk. Parts of Bald-win and Freeport, and communitiesfarther east along the South Shorewere also inundated.

The storm swept water a half-mileinto the Village of Mastic Beach,which remained under mandatoryevacuation last night. Roads connect-ing some low-lying North Shore com-munities were cut off for hours. Inthe Hamptons, Dune Road remainedclosed last night.

At least 22 people in eight statesdied during Irene, including an uni-dentified man who Suffolk officialssay drowned in the waters off Shirleyyesterday afternoon while surfing ona board.

Forecast to touch down in NewYork as a Category 1 hurricane, Ireneweakened to a tropical storm andmade landfall in Brooklyn with windsof 65 mph at 9 a.m., the NationalWeather Service said.

See IRENE onW5

RIDDANCE,IRENE

IRENE

NOWONLINE

Stormnewsandupdates—as

wellasthee-edition,adigitalversionoftoday’sprintedpaper—

areavailabletoalluserstoday.

FREEPORT, 8:30A.M. Bill Carr surveys the storm flooding on MillerAvenue. Parts of Baldwin and Freeport, and communities farther east alongthe South Shore, were also inundated.

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Road property. The trees blocked access to Sackville Road.

LI BATTLESBACK

Two hours later, the stormmoved on to Connecticut.The bands of blinding rainsdrenched Long Island for morethan 12 hours, dumping up to 6inches locally. Winds gusted ashigh as 91 mph in Sayville.Brutal winds snapped treesand light poles, taking downpower lines, crashing intohomes and crushing vehicles incoastal and inland areas alike.Storm surge rolled in withhigh tides to pummel the shore-line. It swept over sea walls andbulkheads and flooded low-lying neighborhoods from LongBeach to Orient. Erosionwas re-ported at state parks and beach-es. Waves washed over Fire Is-land in half a dozen spots.“We have lost critical duneheight along the entire IslipTown oceanfront of Fire Is-land,” said Rick Gimbl, thetown’s director of emergencymanagement.

A lot to fix today, beyondThrough early yesterday af-ternoon, 471,000 of the Long Is-land Power Authority’s 1.1 mil-lion customers were withoutelectricity. That numberdipped below 390,000 lastnight, but LIPA officials provid-ed no estimate of how long itwould take to bring those cus-tomers back on line. However,officials said it could take atleast several days.The uncertainty hung overLong Island residents and busi-ness owners who could face asubstantial economic hit fromextended service disruptions.Confectioner Lisa Hodes hasto figure how to keep cool the1,000 pounds of chocolate she

stored in the basement of herHuntington home and at herSweeties Candy Cottage shopin town. Neither place hadpower yesterday afternoon.“I’m sitting on pins and nee-

dles that it doesn’t get warm to-morrow,” Hodes said.

Moving toward normalcyKennedy and Newark air-

ports were set to open to arriv-ing flights at 6 a.m. and to re-sume departures at noon. La-Guardia planned to be back inbusiness at 7 a.m., the Port Au-thority said.More than 1,000 National

Guard troops were on handacross Long Island. Today,Guard troops with chain saws,dump trucks and heavy equip-ment will begin working withlocal public works crews toclear away scores of trees thatfell across neighborhoodstreets and area highways.As the winds died down and

floodwaters began to recedeacross Long Island, residentsroamed streets snapping pic-tures of the damage and tidyingup downed tree limbs.In Bayville, people used row-

boats, kayaks and surfboards tonavigate a flooded stretch ofBayville Avenue where waterpooled thigh-deep. The resi-dents said Irene could havebeen a lot worse.“Just the bathroom got flood-

ed,” said contractor L.J. Furth-ner, as he bailed water out ofhis backyard and over the sea-wall with a 5-gallon bucket.By afternoon, evacuation or-

ders were lifted across Long Is-land, except for Mastic Beach.

Some still can’t go homeBrookhaven Town Supervi-

sor Mark Lesko said the areawas still dangerous and urgedresidents to stay away.“Many large trees havestruck power lines, power isout, and the bay actuallysurged upward of a half mileinto the village,” Lesko said.Shelters in both countiesemptied quickly, as many ofthe 2,000 or so who sought ref-uge from Irene on cots inschool gymnasiums racedhome to inspect the damage.A few dozen people at theNassau Community Collegeshelter in Garden City opted tospend another night there.Some did so out of an abun-dance of caution. Others had lit-tle choice.Diane and Steve Levine, of Is-land Park, said their street wasstill submerged under 5 feet ofwater, making it difficult to ac-cess their home.“I was hoping they’d bewrong,” she said of Irene fore-casters. “But I had a bad feel-ing.”It was a one-two punch forthe family, whose house suf-fered water damage from thestorm earlier this month. Thatmarked the start of Steve Le-vine’s three-week vacation.Seated in an emptying gym-nasium, the attorney jokedabout his luck during the timeoff: one flood, an earthquakeand now Irene.“I think the next one’s a vol-cano,” he said.

IRENE from 3

12 hoursDuration of rainfall

91mphHighest LI windgusts (Sayville)

471,000LIPA customerswho lost power

(some now restored)

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Today’s articles about Tropical Storm Irene were reported by Stacey Altherr, JenniferBarrios, Bill Bleyer, Alfonso A. Castillo, Sophia Chang, Matthew Chayes, Sarah Crichton,Anthony M. DeStefano, Zachary R. Dowdy, Gary Dymski, Martin C. Evans, CandiceFerrette, Mark Harrington, Keith Herbert, Paul LaRocco, Tania Lopez, James T. Madore,Thomas Maier, Jennifer Maloney, Keiko Morris, Kery Murakami, William Murphy, JoNapolitano, Emily Ngo, Ridgely Ochs, Ted Phillips, Delthia Ricks, John Riley, CandiceRuud, Jennifer Smith, Nicholas Spangler, Joie Tyrrell, Patrick Whittle and Steve Wick.

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$1 |NASSAUEDITIONTuesdayAug. 30, 2011

COPYRIGHT 2011, NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND, VOL. 71, NO. 361

THE LONG ISLAND NEWSPAPERHI 81˚ LO 64˚

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Get updates atnewsday.com

MONDAY

EDITORIALOfficials were right toprepare for theworst.

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and ice cream, and hadn’t soldany gas since Sunday becausethe pumps had no electricity. Hegot power back in the afternoon.

But LIPA officials said it couldtake at least five days to restoreelectricity to some customers.Still others are likely to remainin the dark into the weekend. Asof 10 p.m. yesterday, 325,000cus-tomers remainedwithout poweron Long Island.

The Long Island Rail Roadlimped back to life with trainsrunning on only seven of its 11lines by afternoon. Commutersendured widespread delays.LIRR officials said the biggestobstacle to full recovery maybe getting electricity to morethan 120 grade crossings whosegates have no power.

As teams continued removinghundreds of downed trees fromtracks and roads, police in Nas-sau and Suffolk counties direct-ed traffic at 74 of the busiest in-

tersections without working sig-nals. “An awful number of trafficlights are out,” said Joseph Will-iams, Suffolk’s chief of fire, res-cue and emergency services.

At least 100 signals had nopower in Nassau and another100 were out in BrookhavenTown, officials said. Suffolk’spublic works department isconsidering putting in tempo-rary stop signs to fill the gap.

While Irene did not live upto the worst predictions, it didset some records.

Storm surge at Freeport, PointLookout, Lindenhurst and GlenCove broke records set in 2007and 2010 storms, with water ris-ing asmuch as 1.7 feet higher, ac-cording to preliminary data bytheU.S. Geological Survey.

The storm smashed up mari-nas in Davis Park, Patchogueand Merrick and left somehomes in low-lying coastal com-munities such as Mastic Beach

virtually uninhabitable.Bulkheading at Sandspit Ma-

rina in Patchogue caved in andwill take time and money to re-pair, said Brookhaven ParksCommissioner Ed Morris.

“It took a beating,” said Mor-ris, who added that most othertown parks and recreation facil-ities were in decent shape.

Residents and workers fromresorts along Dune Road in theHamptons found little tonodam-age, aside from the financial im-pact of shuttering businessesduring the storm.

JoAnnClark, propertymanag-er The Dune Deck Hotel & Re-sort, said the hotel lost $60,000and some sand from the dunes infront of the beach-facing bar.

“We’ll pull through, but tolose a whole weekend in Au-gust is a massive blow,” Clarksaid. “We’re a seasonal busi-ness. We only have two moreweekends.”

FEMA spokesman Don Caet-ano said agency representativeswere flying over Long Island toget an overview of damage andcollecting reports from state,county and local governments.

“The stormwascertainlypow-erful, but here in Long Beach weaccept these things as a fact oflife, living on a barrier island,”said city council president TomSofield, who still had 2 feet ofwater in his basement.With Mark Harrington, Alfonso

A. Castillo, Keith Herbert,Matthew Chayes, Tania Lopez,Patrick Whittle, Deborah S.

Morris, Sandra Peddie, MartinC. Evans and Carl MacGowan

TOPSTORIES

In top photo, SueGreer’sPatchoguehouse is surround-edby floodwaters fromTropical Storm IreneSunday.In bottomphoto, she andfriendDora Lavelle, right,remove a soakedmattress.Greer said she had evacuatedbefore the stormand that thehouse andher garage sufferedextensivewater damage.

ON THE COVER

LIPA, LIRR andmore—whatyou need to knowA4-7

Beaches, businesses recoverA10-13

LI storm storiesA20-22

Vermont hammeredA36-37

Insurers set up for claimsA40

At 4 p.m. yesterday, the road was reopened, but it was restricted to one lane of traffic.

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A day later, the groundwas soggy but thebasketball courtwas playable.

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