East Meadow Year in Review: March/April

Superstorm slams East Meadow

A nor’easter pummeled Long Island on March 13 and left behind a major mess. Tropical storm-like winds and relentless rain pounded the region.

In East Meadow, downed power lines and trees were strewn across roads. Many homes and cars sustained serious damage. Crews worked day and night to clean up and make repairs. 

Volunteers from the East Meadow Fire Department worked around the clock, beginning in the early stages of the storm on Saturday afternoon, when a call came in reporting downed wires on Wolcott Road near the Levittown border. It kicked off a weekend in which the entire force of seven companies, and more than 200 volunteers, were kept busy. One storm-related emergency led to another.

The Long Island Power Authority reported nearly 1,000 residents in the East Meadow area without power for days following the storm. LIPA reported a total of 450 outages in East Meadow and 82 in Salisbury.

Downed trees, telephone poles and power lines had become part of the landscape as town, fire and private crews began cleaning up early the next morning. 

Peter Cipriano, an owner of Cipriano’s Nursery and Garden Center in East Meadow, said his landscapers were busy, with the business fielding a flood of calls from customers with fallen and damaged trees. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” Cipriano said.

The water-logged soil, already saturated with snowmelt, helped explain all the falling trees, said Cipriano, an expert gardener. “It’s like a swamp,” he said. “These trees have no support. The ground feels like quicksand and the roots are giving out.”

A tale from East Meadow to Albany

Herald reporter Mike Caputo took a trip to Albany with Assemblyman Tom McKevitt (R-East Meadow) to witness a day in the state Legislature.

Though the Assembly session that day was uncharacteristically quiet, tensions were high as the budget deadline approached.

Hardly men at work in Salisbury