Clean up begins in Valley Stream

Valley Stream's streets are littered with branches from Hurricane Irene, which passed through Saturday night. Thousands of Valley Stream residents were left without power, and at its peak 9,000 homes and businesses had no electricity.

On Elmwood Street in Gibson, just south of Hollywood Avenue, two trees came down after midnight taking down a telephone pole and electric, phone and cable wires. Homes on the street were left without power.

It also damaged the pipes on four homes with carry electric wires to the individual meters. "I heard the snap of the pole," said Chris Steikovski, "Two trees went down together."

Steikovski said the tree fell at about 2 a.m. and the fire department was called. His wife, Rosalie, said they were on the scene within 10 minutes.

Mario Verga lost part of a tree in front of his East Carpenter Street home. He said he didn't hear the limbs snap, but said it happened in the middle of the night. "It could have been chaos," he said. "We lucked out no one got hurt."

John DeAngelis, of East Melrose Street, said that the most intense part of the storm was between 3 and 4 a.m. That's when the rain and wind were heaviest, he said.

In Mill Brook, residents of Elderberry Lane got together to clear three trees that had fallen into the road. "Everybody came out and helped," said Marcelo De Carvalho. "We had fun. We live in a nice neighborhood. Everybody helps out."

De Carvlaho said the block had no electricity so he used his generator to power the saw to carve up the trees.

Even though the storm passed through by Sunday morning, wind persisted throughout the afternoon and brought down part of a tree along Rockaway Parkway, just north of Melrose Street, at around 4 p.m. The fire department responded and blocked off the street. Homes in that neighborhood lost power because it took down some electric lines.

As of about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, about 6,000 homes in the Valley Stream area remained withouth electricity, according to the Long Island Power Authority. Traffic lights along Merrick Road were out from Cottage Street west to Shaw Avenue.

Valley Stream Highway Superintendent Tim Leahy said about 30 full trees throughout the village fell, in addition to all the limbs and branches. He said the March 2010 Nor'easter caused more damage than Hurricane Irene.

Leahy said there were minimal reports of flooding in the village.

Carol Crupi and Joseph Margolin, who live in the high-risk flood zone designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reported no flooding in Gibson.