“Right now we still have no power, no heat, and the National Guard has made a strong appearance,” said Morgan Avila, who lives on the East Rockaway-Lynbrook border. “Some stores are open but are taking cash only. The traffic lights don’t work, so people are having major accidents on the roads.”

Some residents visited nearby Rockville Centre, which has its own power source and where stores and banks and were open.
As of press time, 735,000 LIPA customers on Long Island were still without power. The Bay Park power plant sustained extensive damage, and residents were warned about raw sewage and urged to conserve water.

Lynbrook
Although the Village of Lynbrook wasn’t hit as hard as East Rockaway and Bay Park, there was plenty of damage there, too, including downed power lines, blown transformers and toppled trees.

Traffic was backed up throughout the village, as many traffic signals were not in working order, including one on Peninsula Boulevard that cracked and fell on the road.

Phil Healey, superintendent of the Department of Public Works, reported that hundreds of trees fell or were damaged, and his crews were out early on Tuesday. “No past storm measures up to the effects of Sandy,” he said.

Matt Fay, a Lynbrook resident for the past 15 years, said that Sandy was the worst storm he has experienced. He added that a number of trees in his backyard came down in the heavy winds.
“

We didn’t get much rain, but the wind was howling and it was pushing the trees back and forth incredibly,” Fay said. “Thank God the trees didn’t come down on the house.”

There were downed power lines all over Lynbrook, including a wire at the corner of Hendrickson and Horton avenues and Whitehall Street. Electricity was sporadic throughout the village, with a little more than half of the households without power as of press time. The post office was delivering mail to residents Tuesday on a limited schedule.