Sandy aftermath: A long month for Sani2

In Jerry Brown’s 15 years as a commissioner of the Town of Hempstead’s Sanitary District 2, nothing has rivaled Sandy’s devastation. On the night of the storm, the commissioners and supervisors met at the district’s Grand Avenue headquarters to discuss whether and how workers would be deployed the following morning.

The next day, as Brown and the other commissioners surveyed the damage, it was a lot to take in. He was concerned about downed wires, oil that had spilled from residents’ oil tanks and the sewage backup on Barnes Avenue. Then, as residents began emptying their flooded homes and piling their ruined possessions and sheetrock on the sidewalks, the task grew larger for Sani2.

“We were wondering how we were going to be able to get rid of everything,” Brown recalled. “When people started emptying out their houses it was just going to the curb. It wasn’t packaged, so it was difficult to lift that and get it into the garbage trucks.”

Sani2 borrowed a tractor from the school district and used one of its own to pick up heavy items, but Doug Wiedmann, secretary of the district’s board, remembers that employees did most of the lifting, anyway. “The two hands that were on each garbage man did probably 90 percent of the work,” he said.

According to Wiedmann, employees worked 10-hour days seven days a week in the storm’s aftermath. By around Thanksgiving, Wiedmann said, the curbside garbage was less of an issue.

Sani2 suspended its normal sanitation ordinance and picked up anything that was left on the curb. From there the refuse was transported to area drop-off sites that the Town of Hempstead or the state Department of Environmental Conservation designated.

“These guys really dug in and helped these people that were hurting,” Brown said of the Sani2 employees.