Coastal flood advisory as nor’easter blows to sea, weather service says

The nor’easter showed Long Island one last mercy: it blew out to sea faster than anticipated, so forecasters canceled flood warnings.

For much of the Island, the National Weather Service issued a less serious coastal flood advisory, starting Saturday evening and — after a break — kicking in again Sunday around 8 a.m. before ending in the early afternoon.

“Conditions are getting better, the storm is pulling away, so we are not expecting as much flooding for the coastal area, that’s an improvement,” said Joe Pollina, an NWS forecaster in Upton.

The storm’s speedier departure let the NWS clip about half a foot to a foot off its high-tide predictions, which now are expected to be about 2 to 3 feet higher.

Drenching the Island with as much as 4 inches of rain in spots, the nor’easter trapped some people in cars in Miller Place, closed off roads in many communities and forced homeowners in low-lying Freeport to pump out basements.

But Long Island is no longer threatened by the high winds that knocked down power lines and felled trees — some onto cars and houses — overturned fences and potted plants, sent debris flying, and ripped tiles off roofs.

On Sunday, “the winds, they’ll stay elevated, it will be breezy, but not enough to warrant any warnings,” said NWS meteorologist Peter Wichrowski.

The Town of Brookhaven Aquatic Center in Mastic Beach in a statement said it would reopen Monday after roof repairs.

All Long Island’s state parks will open on Sunday, including Oyster Bay’s Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, though it might still be running on its own power, said George Gorman, Long Island deputy director of state parks.

Fortunately, waters retreated fairly swiftly Saturday from some areas with “excessive flooding,” including at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, which appears to have escaped “any significant damage,” Gorman said.

The storm was surprisingly evenhanded, hitting the north and south shores about equally, he said.

Erosion occurred at East Islip’s Heckscher State Park, Huntington’s Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve, and Wantagh’s Jones Beach State Park.

Around the Island workers were tackling fallen trees, branches and other debris and downed power lines.

In the Town of Hempstead, Supervisor Laura Gillen in a statement said: “ So far crews have successfully removed 104 full or partially damaged trees that have fallen.”

Nassau’s two new nearly 20-foot high flood gates at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant passed their first test.

“All worked well,” said a spokesman for County Executive Laura Curran by email.

The plant, flooded by more than 9 feet of water during superstorm Sandy in 2012, now has a protective wall.

By 10:15 p.m., PSEG Long Island had whittled the number of outages to about 6,600.

The Long Island Rail Road storm recovery continued with restoration of Oyster Bay Branch service on Saturday evening, after removing a large tree that fell on the tracks.

Other suspensions, however, were not yet resolved in West Hempstead and part of the Port Washington branch, the railroad said.

Amtrak by Sunday planned to restore full service between New York City and Washington, D.C., and “nearly all service” to and from Boston, according to its Twitter.

New York airports, walloped by the storm, were returning to more normal schedules.

Looking ahead to Sunday, the forecast does include a minor chance of rain and snow showers after 1 p.m., but the high should be 47, the NWS said.

At least the start of the workweek is promising: a partly sunny Monday will be followed by a mostly sunny Tuesday.

With John Asbury, Laura Blasey and Jean-Paul Salamanca