Storm knocks out power to thousands on LI

High winds left thousands of Long Islanders without power, grounded planes and delayed Long Island Rail Road trains Tuesday night, with gusts peaking at 59 mph just before 9 p.m.

Forecasters said the strong winds will diminish Wednesday and it will be fair and dry, with a high of 44 degrees.

The weather will not affect LIRR's morning rush, as all branches are reporting good service on the MTA's website. The Long Island Power Authority said crews were working into the night to restore power.

Many of the problems came after sustained high winds blew into the region late Tuesday afternoon along with heavy rains and wind gusts.

More than 12,600 customers were without power late Tuesday night, with the bulk of the outages in Bay Shore, Stony Brook and Lake Ronkonkoma, according to LIPA. By 5 a.m., LIPA's website reported 994 customers without power.

Wires downed by wind or tree branches caused the outages, said LIPA spokesman Scott Garver, and day-shift crews were helping night staff make repairs.

Rain tapered off in some areas. But gusts peaked at 59 mph in Islip shortly before 9 p.m., while sustained winds peaked at 45 mph, the weather service said.

LIRR trains were delayed by as much as 30 minutes because of the winds.

Trains hit debris on the tracks, mostly branches, but also a shopping cart in the Mastic-Shirley area, said spokesman Salvatore Arena.

About 12 crossing gates were damaged at one point, he said.

As a precaution, the LIRR had put out extra diesel trains in case of weather-related problems. One was placed at Hicksville so it could run along the Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma lines, and another at Valley Stream, Arena said.

At Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, winds created a "air tunnel effect" and peeled back part of the roof of a hangar housing Heritage Flight Academy airplanes, said airport Commissioner Teresa Rizzuto. Five planes and a boat were stored there, but were not damaged, she said. There were no injuries.

A meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Kyle Struckmann, said wind gusts at LaGuardia reached 40 mph, and 37 mph at Kennedy just before 5 p.m.

But winds about 2,000 feet above the airports were hitting 75 mph -- hurricane-force, he said: "It makes a ride pretty bumpy."

Air traffic delays also stretched into the night. From about 6 to 6:30 p.m., planes were not allowed to land at LaGuardia, and as winds peaked a few hours later, incoming flights faced an average delay of 90 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration website. Planes bound to Kennedy Airport reported delays of more than three hours, according to the FAA.