Feeling Irene's windswept wrath

Hurricane Irene came and went last Sunday, but left her mark across Long Island. Downgraded to a tropical storm as it passed over the metropolitan area, it brought heavy rains and high winds that caused local flooding, toppled trees and power lines and left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.

The South Shore felt the brunt of the storm early Sunday morning, between 2 and 5 a.m. By the time most residents awoke, the rain bands had dissipated, but heavy winds complicated cleanup efforts throughout the evening.

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano ordered the evacuation of the South Shore, and the county opened nearly two dozen shelters. The Town of Hempstead offered relief centers as well. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority shut down all public transportation at noon on Saturday. Bus service was back to normal on Monday, but service on the Long Island Rail Road was limited, and still suspended entirely on the Long Beach and Far Rockaway branches.

The Long Island Power Authority reported that at the height of the storm, 500,000 homes and businesses were without electricity. Customer service centers were closed so workers could focus on repairs. Many of the outages were caused when trees fell on power lines.

In Franklin Square, 5,095 residents experienced power outages due to the storm, nearly half of the population. In Elmont, 721 residents experienced power outages, according to LIPA.

Vanessa Baird-Streeter, a spokeswoman for LIPA, said that more than 1,500 LIPA restoration personnel were deployed early on Sunday, and on Monday, more than 2,300 restoration personnel began assessing Irene’s destruction, which included snapped power lines and damaged transformers. LIPA also brought in repair crews from western states to help assess and clean up the damage.

On Monday, Baird-Streeter said that LIPA did not have information on how many homes in Franklin Square and Elmont were still without power, but she added that power had not been deliberately shut off by LIPA anywhere in Nassau County. That information will be updated on LIPA’s website, www.lipower.org, throughout the week, she said.

Harley Glass, an Elmont resident who lives on Litchfield and Arlington Avenue, said that although she experienced no long power outages, the lights in her home flickered on and off on Saturday night and all day Sunday. Anthony Maffea, another resident, said his home lost power Sunday afternoon.

Deborah Morgan Rung said that her home on Southern Drive in Franklin Square went dark at 4 a.m. on Sunday, and that power was restored at 11:45 a.m. At 3:30 p.m., Rung said, she experienced back-to-back power surges — she lost power for two minutes after an electrical pole on Ferngate Drive in Franklin Square fell, and she lost it again briefly not long afterward, when a pole fell on Arkansas Drive in North Valley Stream.

Elizabeth Flagler, another spokeswoman for LIPA, said that crews worked on Sunday restoring power to critical facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes, fire stations and evacuation shelters, and then repaired those transmission lines that restored power to the highest number of customers at one time. Flagler said on Monday that it would likely take several days to complete repairs, due to flooding and unsafe conditions.

The Elmont and Franklin Square & Munson fire departments worked through Monday to remove fallen trees and secure fallen power lines in the area. The Elmont F.D.’s “Explorers” — interns who are helping the department for the summer — were also deployed on Sunday.

State Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) said he believed that the Elmont department, along with the Town of Hempstead’s Highway Department, which was deployed on Sunday, did an effective job. “Locally, we had to deal with a lot of downed wires, flooding and tree damage,” Martins said. “Everywhere you turned, our volunteers were right there, helping their fellow neighbors in a very serious situation. As our first responders continue to offer assistance to our greater community, I would like to encourage everyone to check on their neighbors, especially our seniors, and please be patient during cleanup operations. Last but not least, do not approach any downed wires under any circumstance.”

Andrew Hackmack contributed to this story. Comments about it? JNash@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 214.