Andrea floods LI, but leaves little damage

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season flooded numerous areas on Long Island and set rainfall records Friday, leaving residents feeling fortunate to have escaped major property damage.

Lindenhurst, still recovering from superstorm Sandy, was "very lucky" because only fresh water flooded streets near the bay, said Raymond Fais, who heads the village's Office of Emergency Management.

Fais said "the streets were all clear" yesterday morning. "There were a couple of mud puddles."

Long Beach spokesman Gordon Tepper said the South Shore community was spared significant flooding, but post-Tropical Storm Andrea's deluge brought back bitter memories of Sandy.

"Those people leaving work early, who saw water everywhere, it might have been a little nerve-wracking," he said.

Andrea dumped 6.13 inches of rain on Old Bethpage, the biggest downpour in Nassau County, according to Mike Layer, an Upton-based National Weather Service meteorologist. Centereach saw 5.65 inches, the most in Suffolk.

Though Andrea was waning by the time it drenched the Northeast, new records for the date were set at Long Island's six monitoring stations, Layer said.

At Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, 4.15 inches fell, easily surpassing the previous record of 1.27 inches set on June 7, 2006, during a nor'easter, Layer said.