Village of Island Park encourages evacuation

The Village of Island Park is encouraging its residents to evacuate before Hurricane Irene hits. Nassau County's coastal evacuation routes are outlined on this map.

Courtesy Nassau County

As Hurricane Irene bears down on Long Island, village officials in Island Park are encouraging residents to get off the small island and head north of Sunrise Highway.

The evacuation notice is unofficial at this time. Mayor James Ruzicka will be conferring with the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management this afternoon, at which time it will be decided whether or not to make the evacuation mandatory. However, both the mayor and the fire department are encouraging residents to evacuate.

The Island Park Fire Department will be moving most of its trucks to Uniondale for the duration of the storm. Ruzicka said that a skeleton crew will remain in Island Park to aid residents during the beginning and end of the storm. However, Ruzicka made it clear that fire fighters would not be leaving the station on Long Beach Road once the most severe part of the storm began.

“That would be putting our guys in danger,” Ruzicka said, “and we just can’t do that.”

The hurricane will most likely be hitting Island Park during a new moon at high tide, when low-lying areas of the village would be flooding anyway. According to the IPFD, the village is expecting tidal surges of 8 to 13 feet. Ruzicka estimated that 90 percent of the village’s roads could flood.

If residents do not have anyone they can stay with, Nassau County has set up Nassau Community College and SUNY Farmingdale as evacuation centers residents can go to.

In case of evacuation, residents should follow the hurricane evacuation route:

1. Starting from the Long Beach Bridge, head northbound via Austin Boulevard, which will become Long Beach Road in northern Island Park.

2. Continue northbound on Long Beach Road to Sunrise Highway, Rockville Centre.

3. Make a right onto Sunrise Highway and proceed eastbound to Grand Avenue, Baldwin.

4. Left turn going northbound on Grand Avenue across the Southern State Parkway, which then turns into Baldwin Road.

5. Baldwin Road turns into Henry Street in the Incorporated Village of Hempstead. Right turn on Peninsula Boulevard.

6. Remain on Peninsula Boulevard until it becomes Fulton Avenue in the Incorporated Village of Hempstead.

7. Continue eastbound on Fulton Avenue, which will become Hempstead Turnpike at the Hempstead/Uniondale border.

8. Continue eastbound to Earl Ovington Boulevard and make a left.

9. Proceed northbound on Earl Ovington Boulevard into the Nassau Community College American Red Cross Evacuation Center.