Long Island braces for Hurricane Sandy

UPDATE, Noon Monday: According to Nassau County Legislator Howard Kopel, LIPA will not be responding to calls for outages at this time. "LIPA has just informed me that due to hazardous conditions stemming from Hurricane Sandy, most of their field restoration efforts for homes without power have been curtailed as of 12 Noon today," Kopel wrote on his Facebook page. "As conditions improve, LIPA says they will resume their field restoration efforts."

The NICE Bus also announced that service will be suspended tomorrow, Tuesday Oct. 30. Service has been suspended since 7 p.m. Sunday. "We are currently in the midst of the storm; service will be restored only when it is safe to do so," they wrote in a release.

Hurricane Sandy continued its long 15-mile-per-hour march up the East Coast on Monday morning, starting to turn to the left and aiming for the Delaware-New Jersey shoreline, as predicted, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.

At 5 a.m. on Oct. 29, this “superstorm” was intensifying, increasing the certainty that it will bring hurricane-force wind gusts up to 85 mph, drenching rain and heavy tidal surges from Maryland-Delaware to Long Island and beyond. In its 5 a.m. briefing, the National Hurricane Center predicted that there was an 80 percent chance the South Shore could see tropical storm-force winds in the coming days, and there was a 50 to 70 percent chance that we could see a tidal surge of at least four feet (for tidal surge explanation, see related story, “Hurricane Center: 5 to 10% chance Merrick-Bellmore will be hit by 8-foot surge”).

As of 10 a.m., at least 50 power outages in residential homes have been reported in East Meadow, according to the Long Island Power Authority's outage map on its website.

On Sunday, the East Meadow School District announced the closing of its schools for Monday, Oct. 29. All school and evening activities are canceled, as well. There is no word yet on the status of schools for Tuesday.

At 8 a.m. on Monday, the Nassau University Medical in East Meadow opened its Emergency Command Center to manage the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on both NUMC and the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale.

According to a press release on Monday, Arthur A. Gianelli, president and CEO of the NuHealth System, said that 57 patients were successfully evacuated from the Long Beach Hospital into the NUMC. Additionally, 35 nursing home residents were transferred to the AHF.

Visiting hours at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow are cancelled for Monday.

On Saturday, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano issued a State of Emergency for the county, and ordered mandatory evacuations for residents who live south of Sunrise Highway.

According to a release on Nassau County website, the following storm shelters will be opened today:

• Nassau Community College's P Building located at 1 Education Drive in Garden City East.