Storms knock down trees, power lines in East End
East Hampton Town Police officer removes branches from Woodbine Drive in the Springs area of East Hampton after storm damage. (July 21, 2010) Credit: Photo by Gordon M. Grant
A summer of extreme weather conditions on Long Island continued with East End towns taking a beating from severe weather Wednesday night -- and the National Weather Service warning of the potential for brush fires today.
The weather service said Thursday that a combination of sunny conditions, gusty winds and temperatures approaching 90 degrees may lead to quick-spreading wildfires.
The storms that raged throughout Long Island last night punished East Hampton in particular, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving almost 4,000 of its homes in the dark.
Weather service meteorologists in Upton said there was one reported sighting in East Hampton of a waterspout, which is a tornado occurring over water, according to meteorologist Phil Bachmann. He added that if the storm system had come onto land, it would be defined as a tornado.
He said waterspouts are weaker than tornadoes, adding, "Tornadoes are not typical around here but we do get them."
East Hampton police were on the streets assessing the damage but reported no injuries. As of 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the LIPA website reported that there were still 3,746 customers overall without power, 2,039 of which were in East Hampton. There were 979 and 386 customers affected in Hempstead and Brookhaven, respectively.
The website said most communities have an "estimated restoration" time between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Long Island Power Authority spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said there were about 7,000 outages on Long Island at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, with nearly 3,800 occurring in Springs in East Hampton alone. The figure amounts to more than 80 percent of the customers served by LIPA in the area, according to the utility's website.
Elsewhere on the East End, Riverhead had some power lines down around Sound Avenue in Wading river, and trees across some roadways. Southampton, Southold and Shelter Island also reported outages.
Brookhaven was hit hard, with 2,300 outages, the bulk of them, 1,000, striking in Holtsville.
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