Powerful nor'easter slams Long Island with wind, rain

A powerful nor'easter battered Long Island on Saturday with damaging winds, coastal flooding, downed trees and widespread power outages, and forecasters warned that the storm's effects would continue into Sunday.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for Long Island on Saturday afternoon that remains in effect through noon Sunday, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts reaching 65 miles per hour in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The warning said damaging winds could bring down trees and power lines, creating widespread power outages and making travel difficult.

Forecasters said another round of rain and strong winds could cause additional flooding on Sunday. Rain is also forecast to continue into early Monday.

NewsdayTV meteorologist Geoff Bansen said Long Islanders could expect storm conditions to start improving substantially midday Sunday. He said the storm was expected to shift toward the Jersey Shore, potentially pushing additional water toward the coast and worsening beach erosion.

By Saturday afternoon, most of Long Island experienced a break from scattered rainfall. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman warned residents not to mistake that lull as the end of dangerous conditions.

Wind gusts above 50 miles per hour were reported widely across Nassau and Suffolk. The National Weather Service recorded a 66 mile per hour gust at Eatons Neck, a 65 mph gust in Stony Brook and a 61 mph gust at Farmingdale Airport.

Blakeman urged residents to stay off roadways until Sunday afternoon, move vehicles to higher ground and avoid driving through flooded areas.

"Assume the worst," he said.

No storm-related deaths were reported on Long Island, but a New York State Parks spokesperson said emergency personnel were conducting a search Saturday night at Robert Moses State Park after a report that a person entered the water and had not been seen exiting.

Flooding concern

National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Goodman said the weekend rainfall total was expected to reach about four inches but fall gradually enough that widespread flash flooding was not considered a major concern.

Coastal flooding, however, remained a major concern until Sunday night. Goodman said flooding could reach one to two feet above ground in many locations, with as much as three feet possible in the hardest-hit areas. The highest risks were along the Great South Bay, from Long Beach to Lindenhurst, as well as portions of the Peconic Bay and South Fork.

In Nassau on Saturday, the storm caused flooding in Long Beach, Island Park, Cedarhurst, Merrick, Freeport, East Rockaway and Massapequa, officials said.

Johnson Ode, of Freeport, said Saturday morning that he was struggling to get home from his job because of the flooding.

"I can't get home right now because the whole road is flooded as a result of the downpour," Ode said. "Well, this is nature. There's nothing I can do about it."

In Suffolk, officials said Lindenhurst, Copiague, Babylon Village, East Patchogue, Riverhead and parts of Port Jefferson and Huntington as areas most susceptibility to flooding.

Flooding closed westbound traffic and portions of eastbound traffic on Dune Road from Ponquogue Beach in Hampton Bays to Quogue Village Beach.

In East Hampton, Deputy Supervisor David Lys said there was significant flooding along the town's bayside coast, with water washing over docks. On the ocean side, water was reaching the dunes.

The Montauk Lighthouse recorded wind gusts above 60 mph, he said. Trees were down and some roads on the town's north side were "impassable," he added.

Power outages

The storm's effects left tens of thousands of Long Island households out of power on Saturday.

In a 5 p.m. briefing, PSEG Long Island said it had restored power to more than 45,100 customers affected by the storm. The company was still working to restore 814 outages affecting more than 12,100 customers.

The outages were "scattered," but the hardest-hit areas included Patchogue, Blue Point, Huntington and Roslyn, the utility company said. Power also went out several times at the ShopRite in Uniondale Saturday morning. The lights went out in the store shortly after 11:30 a.m. before the power returned and shopping resumed about 10 minutes later.

The company expected another round of rain and wind gusts on Saturday night and Sunday to slow restoration efforts and create additional outages.

The storm disrupted air travel as well, delaying and canceling some flights out of LaGuardia Airport and 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. At Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip, Cape Air canceled all flights to Boston, while other flights were operating on or close to schedule.

Long Island bus and rail service also was affected.

Flooded tracks in Island Park prompted the Long Island Rail Road to suspend service on the Long Beach branch between Valley Stream and Long Beach. Shuttle buses were put in their place.

Flooding forced NICE Bus to operate limited service on the N15, while other Nassau routes experienced delays, detours and skipped stops. Suffolk County Transit detoured routes because of flooding in downtown Port Jefferson and a downed tree on Motor Parkway.

Ferry services across Long Island were canceled Saturday. Ferry companies were expected to assess conditions Sunday morning before determining whether service could resume.

Beach erosion

Coastal communities saw some of the most severe conditions.

Suffolk officials also reported erosion along ocean beaches and planned to use drones to document conditions before and after the storm.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said waves could reach 20 feet along the coastline and urged residents to stay away from the water. A full moon Saturday night also could contribute to higher coastal water levels, Hochul said.

"That is strong, that is ferocious, and it needs to be taken seriously," Hochul said from the state's emergency operations center in Albany.

In Brookhaven Town, Supervisor Dan Panico said flooding had become significant in Mastic Beach, Shirley and the greater Moriches area, with water already over bulkheads. By Saturday morning, the town's highway department had reported about 80 downed trees and roughly 2,500 homes were without power. Panico said Davis Park on Fire Island was heavily battered by the ocean.

Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said flooding from the Great South Bay during the day's high-tide cycles could put water two to three feet above normal in some areas and flood streets in low-lying communities like Lindenhurst, Copiague and Amityville. About 35 trees had been knocked down in the town by Saturday morning, he said.

Suffolk Police reported that fallen trees damaged homes in West Babylon, East Patchogue and Dix Hills.

In East Patchogue, Teresa Rose awoke before dawn to find that a large oak tree had fallen into an unoccupied bedroom of her home in the Patchogue Shores neighborhood. The impact damaged the roof and caused water damage inside the house.

"We're always worried about the wind. It's just unfortunate, the nor'easter, the winds were out of the north," Rose said.

A tree fell and knocked down power lines in Dix Hills, blocking all lanes of Daly Road near Jericho Turnpike. Police later received at least 36 additional calls involving incidents ranging from a traffic light outage in Brightwaters to a crash involving a downed tree in Port Jefferson Station and a possible brush fire caused by a downed wire in Setauket.

Suffolk County's emergency operations center was expected to remain open through 4 p.m. Sunday. Rudy Sunderman, commissioner of Suffolk Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, warned during a news briefing Saturday that there was more work to be done.

"The storm is not over yet," Sunderman said.