By Hector Flores
After finishing her workout at a nearby gym, the East Meadow teacher was heading toward her Salisbury home when a heavy rain began. As Ryder approached the intersection, she noticed that it was flooding, and some cars were having difficulty negotiating it.
Confident that her big Cadillac Escalade could handle the high water, she started to turn onto Carman. She failed to notice an open manhole in her path, its cover lying less than two feet away. High water pressure in the sewer system, caused by the storm, had displaced the manhole cover.
Unsuspecting drivers were greeted with loud thuds as they drove over the manhole. Ryder, however was less fortunate. The left front tire of her SUV fell in to it, leaving her stranded. ³I didn¹t notice anything,² she said, as she inspected the damage to her car. ³All I saw was the water. I tried veering to the right and then my car just fell. I¹m stunned because it occurred so quickly.²
Ryder was just one of many East Meadow and Salisbury residents affected by the thunderstorms, which resulted in flash floods, downed trees and power outages across the area.
Stewart Avenue resident Jose Ventura, who lives on the border of East Meadow and Salisbury, said that two trees fell in front of his house, on Stewart Avenue and Elda Lane, making it difficult for cars to pass through. One of the trees was cut in half by lighting, and another was brought down by high winds. ³This is the first time that I¹ve seen anything like this,² said Ventura, a 10-year Salisbury resident. ³One tree got hit by lighting and landed on the hood of a friend¹s car. Then the second tree fell three minutes after the first.²
Steve Spyridon, Ventura¹s neighbor, said that the thunderstorm hit very quickly ‹ and moved away just as quickly. ³This is crazy,² he said. ³One second you couldn¹t see anything in front of you and then it¹s clear. No one knows if this was a tornado or hurricane.²
John O¹Brien, chief of the East Meadow Fire Department, said that the department responded to 10 calls in less than an hour. ³We responded to everything from wires down, house fire alarms, gas emergencies and a report of a gas leak in a house,² O¹Brien said.
He added that 85 firefighters responded to emergency calls in East Meadow, Westbury and Levittown. ³It got so bad at one point that fire companies were relocated to emergencies all over the town,² O¹Brien recounted. ³We had companies placed in different areas to ensure even protection throughout the town.²
Gary Conte, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said that a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Nassau County at 3:32 p.m. and again at 7:06 p.m. The weather service also issued a flash flood warning at 7:03 p.m.
³This is not really unusual,² Conte said. ³We had a strong cold front moving southeast. As it pushed up, very warm, moist and unstable air caused the development of heavy thunderstorms. These storms produced strong, gusty winds, knocked down trees, power lines and produced flash floods across Nassau County.²
Conte added, ³Nassau County averages 25 thunderstorms a year. At times these storms develop winds of up to 58 miles per hour, and hail at least the size of a penny.²
The cleanup
On June 29, after the storms had subsided, the Town of Hempstead and the Long Island Power Authority worked through the night to remove downed trees and restore power to East Meadow and Salisbury. Susy Trenkle, spokeswoman for the Town of Hempstead, said that approximately 30 trees ‹ belonging to the town and found between the sidewalk and road ‹ had been removed from the two communities.
³The highway department worked through the night clearing trees from the roads,² Trenkle said. ³The department was finished by 2 p.m. [on June 29]. This is probably more than double the number of trees that usually fall down during a regular thunderstorm.²
Trenkle added that on June 27, a similar situation had occurred in Seaford and Wantagh.
³The high winds broke branches and toppled trees on power lines,² said Elizabeth Flagler, LIPA¹s media relations coordinator. ³Approximately 54,000 LIPA customers were affected, with a peak number of outages of 19,214 occurring at 11 p.m. on June 27. Of the customers affected, 86 percent were from Nassau County, with heavily hit areas in Port Washington, Sands Point, Westbury and East Meadow.² There were 17 customers without power in East Meadow alone.
Flagler added that 265 restoration crews replaced poles and fuses, repaired power lines, reset transformers and removed trees from LIPA facilities. Approximately 70 percent of all outages were restored in under four hours.
Comments about this story? HFlores@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
Photos by Hector Flores/Herald
