No way to prepare for storm's onslaught

Sharon Lavelle was ready early for the heavy weekend storm, activating her sump pump shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday to keep water from flooding her Bellmore home.

But her preparation was no match for the torrent of water from the overflowing Merokee Pond that soon flooded her basement.

"It came with such force that things in the basement just flipped over," Lavelle recalled Monday.

Lavelle was among residents on Nassau County's South Shore hard hit by the downpour that dumped more than 10 inches on some Long Island communities by Sunday night. Among the hardest hit were Lido Beach, with 10.87 inches and Wantagh, with 10.08 inches, according to the National Weather Service in Upton.

Residents like Lavelle and authorities in both Nassau and Suffolk were still cleaning up the mess Monday.

Nassau reported the flooding was worst in the Merokee Pond area in Merrick.

Suffolk County Department of Health Services also issued an advisory Monday against swimming at 66 county beaches.

Nassau officials dispatched workers to combat the storm, including helping around 32 residents pump water out of their basements. Lavelle was one of them.

"They gave us a pump" Sunday afternoon, she said.

Forecasters said Monday that eastern Suffolk County could get another 1 to 2 inches of rain. Nassau and points west were expected to get just under an inch.

At its height, the deluge forced the closing for much of Sunday of major roads in Nassau, interrupted service on two Long Island Rail Road branches -- Long Beach and Far Rockaway -- and caused power outages to 26,000 customers. Mark Gross, a LIPA spokesman, said power was restored to all but four customers by Monday.

Service on the LIRR was suspended Sunday on the two branches because of flooding that covered the electrified third rail and electric switches, said spokesman Sam Zambuto. Buses were used until train service was restored by 3 a.m. Monday, in time for the morning rush, when a "full complement of trains" was operating, Zambuto said.

Suffolk officials reported fallen electrical wires, which in one instance forced the closing of the West Bay Drawbridge over Dune Road.

Richie and Corrine Zappolo of Garden City and their 11-year-old twin boys were visiting the Nickerson Beach Park Campground in Lido Beach when the storm hit.

"By 7 a.m. [Sunday], everything was covered in water. . . . Coolers were floating around. One camper was flooded up to the door," Richie Zappolo said.

Patrick Dejean, the building superintendent of the Hofstein House apartments on Clinton Street in Hempstead, surveyed several vehicles in the parking lot that had been damaged by floodwaters.

"It just floated," he said of a silver van sitting askew in the lot, sporting a muddy water line more than halfway up its frame. "The waters just picked it up."

With William Murphy and Candice Ruud