Nor'easter, day two, brings downed trees, power outages, flooding, and travel delays to LI

A two-day nor’easter doused Long Island Monday with rain, coastal flooding, gusty winds and flight delays, as well as leaving more than 5,500 without power at one point.

But a change in the predicted wind direction of the coastal storm helped the region elude a stronger battering, forecasters and town officials said. And forecasters said the storm should move out by Tuesday, with sunshine predicted for Wednesday.

Most municipalities reported the storm had caused only limited flooding and damage, but there were plenty of downed trees, especially in eastern Suffolk, and some swamped roads and parking lots.

Power outages spiked to more than 5,500 throughout the Island at about 1 p.m., then came back down to below 1,000 by 6 p.m., according to PSEG Long Island.

In an emailed statement, PSEG Long Island said: "As the nor’easter begins to depart, PSEG Long Island continues to make strong progress, restoring power to more than 94% of customers affected by the heavy rain and significant winds that downed trees, branches and wires, causing scattered power outages throughout the service area.

"As of 4 PM, PSEG Long Island has restored power to more than 30,600 customers affected by the storm since 7 AM Sunday. Currently, 1,596 of 1.2 million electric customers across Long Island and the Rockaways are without power," the statement said.

Heavy rain fell overnight on Long Island Sunday into Monday, anywhere from 1 to 2 inches in most places, while peak wind gusts ranged in Suffolk from 40 mph in West Gilgo Beach to 57 mph in Eaton's Neck. In Nassau, they ranged from 40 mph in Wantagh to 52 mph in Bayville, according to the National Weather Service.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jay Engle said while a first take on the storm's impact might indicate Long Island got off light with this nor’easter he said the reality is that damage was “only slightly less than anticipated” – and that was mostly because winds proved “more northerly than easterly.”

“We did get local storm reports of a lot of downed trees,” Engle said. “But, while we anticipated coastal flooding that would be moderate to major, the reality is we had mostly minor to moderate flooding – and that was because of the wind direction . . . That kept water from piling up and that helped limit the impact.”

Long Islanders can expect relief from the nor’easter by Tuesday, according to Dominic Ramunni, a meteorologist with the weather service.

“We will start to see conditions begin to begin to improve as we go into tomorrow,” he said Monday but “gloomy” light showers will carry through overnight, Ramunni said, with the storm’s heaviest rain already finished.

Strong winds up to 40 mph will carry into Monday night, hitting the eastern areas of Long Island harder, he added. Residents can expect sunshine by midweek, Ramunni said.

The nor’easter brought conditions that were no worse than other heavy rains or high tides that spilled over from the waters behind Priscilla Reyes’ South Freeport home near Al’s Marina, which was closed Monday.

After three years in the home, she said her family knows that when waters creep beyond the marina property and toward their elevated house, it’s time to move their cars around the block to higher ground, as they did earlier Monday. But she has woken up to worse, she said.

“This is a little high, but not as high as usual“ Reyes, 42, said staring at the pool that inundated her street, about 6 inches deep at the lowest point. Similar puddles flooded surrounding streets and parking lots in the area.
“It wasn’t so bad,” she said.

Travel delays

Flights arriving to LaGuardia were delayed an average of nearly four hours as of Monday evening. Kennedy Airport was also predicting delays through Tuesday.

On the Long Island Rail Road, the Ronkonkoma line was running 10-15 minutes late on Monday evening due to “slippery rails caused by fallen leaves,” according to the MTA. The Montauk Branch still has 35-40 minute delays due to equipment trouble.

Authorities are advising passengers to contact their airlines about delays and cancellations, with weather impacting flights at numerous airports.

The New York State Department of Transportation traffic website, 511NY, was reporting several downed trees — all of them in Suffolk, including one at Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway that was partially blocking a lane. The 511 site also had two other downed trees causing road closures, one in Southampton and another in East Hampton.

Limited flooding, erosion 

Ocean Beach Police Department Sgt. Andrew Becher said Fire Island held up well against the storm heading into high tide Monday afternoon.

Power remained on for the island as village maintenance crews were working to clear walkways of tree branches.

Flooding was minimal on Ocean Beach and mainly contained to Bay Walk along the bay side, Sgt. Becher said.

"It seems like any water is a bay flooding situation," he said. "We were down at the ocean earlier. There's been some erosion on the ocean front, moving some sand around, but so far there has not been any breaches."

Sgt. Becher said there has been no need for any evacuations or emergency rescues.
"So far we've fared pretty well," the sergeant said.

Kyle Merker, Chief of the Fire Island Pines Fire Department, said he inspected the ocean beach between the Pines and Water Island during high tide and found it was not passable. Nearby in Davis Park, he said the beach was underwater up to the Dunes during the high tides.
Those beaches are used by first responders to respond to emergencies, but so far that hadn't impacted his department.

On the Bay side, Merker expected the water to rise up minimally beyond the dock on Fire Island Pines but not on Water Island. He said one of his neighbors lost part of their dock Sunday, but damage has been minimal.

Merker said the adversity that comes with a storm is baked into life on Fire Island.

"You expect these problems," the chief said. "We learned in [Superstorm] Sandy there's gonna be some things you just have to deal with. That's part of the price you pay."

Thomas Ruskin, president of the Seaview Association on Fire Island, said his community between the Village of Ocean Beach and Ocean Beach Park, spent $3 million in recent years to prevent flooding. He credited that investment with helping Seaview remain free of flooding on the bayside as of Monday afternoon.

"The ocean water did come up to the dune but it did not take much of the sand away," Ruskin said. "If anything it brought sand in and built it up higher."

He knew of two downed trees in Seaview but said walkways remained clear.

"We've put a lot of time and effort in preparing our community for storms like this," Ruskin said. "It's one of the things we have to deal with a few times a year, normally."

Long Island's state parks were seeing some flooding but limited erosion.

“We had to close our four wheel drive areas here at Robert Moses Field 2 Democratic Point because of the surf coming in because the actual roadway that leads to the beachfront is flooded," said George Gorman, regional state parks director.

"So far it’s not bad but I’m keeping my fingers crossed knocking on wood because you never know what’s coming. We understand we may have already seen the brunt of it with this mornings high tide - but we are cautious. It is coming in, we are seeing some erosion with this afternoons high tide so again until this is all out and gone into the Atlantic Ocean further north we are not going to breathe a sigh of relief."

Downed trees were a problem, especially in eastern Suffolk.

East Hampton Town Highway Department Supervisor Stephen Lynch said the storm had knocked down scores of trees and branches — and that the town had three crews out dealing with issues on as fast as they could keep pace.

"It’s a lot of trees and limbs down," Lynch said, "probably 30 or 40 incidents and that includes limbs, trees, road blockages."

Lynch added there was less wind damage to the east in Montauk than in and around the East Hampton village area.

"We haven’t had any kind of flooding," he said. "Just trees and branches. Has it been more of a nuisance? All nor’easters are a nuisance."

East Hampton public information officer Patrick Derenze said in an email, "Crews are monitoring Montauk’s oceanfront and harbors. No significant impacts to public infrastructure reported beyond wind, surf, and scattered street flooding."

The storm did bring lots of inconvenience for those hoping to enjoy the Columbus Day holiday.

Michele LaMartina, manager of Harbor Crab Co. in Patchogue, said the restaurant saw less business this holiday weekend because of the storm.

"People are afraid to come out. They’ve gone food shopping, preparing to hunker down and stay home and be prepared for a terrible storm," she said. "Luckily, we didn’t really get that. But unfortunately, it does turn a lot of people off from coming out."

The restaurant had to postpone and  reschedule its annual Columbus Day bass tournament, a fundraiser for scholarships, to next weekend because of the storm, she added. “I’m hopeful that people will be so relieved that the storm has passed that they’ll come back out again" when the weather clears up, LaMartina said.

In Brookhaven, Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro said it was "a long night" for town crews, but damage was relatively minimal.

"This doesn’t rise anywhere near to the level of other tropical storms that we’ve had," he said just after 11 a.m. Monday.

North Shore communities from Setauket to Shoreham saw the worst damage, mostly because of downed tree limbs, Losquadro said. "In the past 24 to 30 hours, we’re up to about 60 locations [with damage], and that’s trees and limbs," he said. "That sounds like a lot, but with the size of Brookhaven, that’s actually not a lot."

"We had crews out overnight, but it wasn’t that bad because people stayed home," Losquadro said. "Everything is a mess as far as twigs and branches and leaves, but that’s normal cleanup that people will be doing in their yards when all of this subsides," he added.

There were no serious flooding issues, he said. The town was working with PSEG crews to cut power where utility lines were down. Some roads were temporarily closed to remove trees, he said.

Port Jefferson Mayor Lauren Sheprow said village crews were removing trees but there were no reports of injuries late Monday morning. "We avoided flooding issues for the first 24 hours, but these winds are taking a toll today," Sheprow said. "Emergency crews [are] clearing several down trees in neighborhoods."

Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri said damage was "not bad" late Monday morning.

"The tides weren’t what they were expected to be," Pontieri said. "There’s a little water in our streets, but just what you expect from a little rain."

An uprooted tree took down power lines on Moriches Road in Mastic, where residents were without power.

Mike Cortigino said the tree fell around 3 a.m. and downed power lines trapped his car in the driveway. Cortigino said he was frustrated that PSEG Long Island had not yet responded.

"I fired up the generator so I don't lose food," he said. "I could have some coffee and one light."

Vulnerable areas 

In Lindenhurst, traffic moved smoothly along Montauk Highway on Monday morning, but several streets to the south were flooded. Ponding at the intersection of South Fourth Street and Third Avenue made the streets impassable and cars were pulled into side and front lawns.

Flooding made driving along South Ninth Street, which runs along one of the canals from the Great South Bay, impossible.

Monday afternoon, high tide poured more water onto Lindenhurst streets south of Montauk Highway. A public safety vehicle sat at the intersection of Wellwood Ave and Knoll Street to warn drivers of the flooded roads but some people and large trucks drove through the water.
A few pedestrians wrapped garbage bags around their legs before walking further south on Wellwood.

Early Monday, a section of brick facade fell off a building at the East Winds Apartments in East Patchogue, Suffolk police said. The incident, reported about 1:30 a.m., damaged a gas pipe on the ground, police said. There were no initial reports of injuries and officials could not immediately say whether the incident was storm related.

Business as usual

The storm did not stop business at the Rez Station gas station on the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic.

Ray Duffy, 48, of Mastic Beach, said on Monday morning that the roads have "been worse." He was fueling up on the way to his job at Calverton National Cemetery, which was still operational during the federal government shutdown.

"We're all essential employees. You can't tell people, "Well, grandpa can't get buried,’" Duffy said. "It's a level of honor to make sure that we service our veterans and their families, and then we make sure that everything is as nice as we possibly can for them."

Carlos Ochoa, 28, of Shirley, started delivering breakfast orders through DoorDash early Monday morning. "A lot of people don't like to go out in the rain and get their food," he said.

Wind downed a tree on Whittier Drive in Mastic Beach, closing part of the residential road and taking down power lines while damaging a neighbor’s fence.

Two employees from Asplundh Tree Experts on site told Newsday it was the third major tree collapse they'd dealt with in the area Monday.

On Monday morning, the wind roared at Jones Beach Field 6, where pools of water collected on the shoreline and parking lot. The crashing of ocean waves could be heard and the intensity of the rain picked up shortly after 8:30 a.m., quickly drenching anyone in its path.

Mike Keefe, 67, of Wantagh, was among the few people on the boardwalk and comes to Field 6 every day to ride his bike for 10 miles. Due to the storm he decided to would skip the bike and just walk.

"If you rest, you rust," he said. "You got to keep moving. "

Nearly 50 miles to the east, ocean waves reaching more than 6 feet high tore up Smith Point Beach about 10 a.m., where a few locals who braved the elements watched from atop the dunes as the sea pounded at the sands.

"It’s my first time seeing something like that; I lived in the city before," said Julio Gonzalez, 45, of Mastic, who was taking video of the crashing waves with his phone.

"It’s something good, something nice," he added. "A good experience and something different."