Mandatory evacuation issued for Long Beach

Nassau County is ordering mandatory evacuations of tens of thousands of homes on the South Shore because of Hurricane Irene, County Executive Ed Mangano announced Friday afternoon.

All residents living south of Sunrise Highway, between the Queens border and Rockville Centre, and south of Merrick Road, between Rockville Centre and the Suffolk County border, must leave their homes by 5 p.m. Saturday. Nassau County is in line for a direct hit from the Hurricane, with rain and heavy winds expected to start late Saturday and continue through Sunday evening.

The evacuation order includes Long Beach and the rest of the entire barrier island. With more than 33,000 residents in the city, officials are urging them to heed the notice, and residents are being informed to evacuate by 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27.

"You need to be out of the city by 5 p.m. tomorrow," said Lenny Remo, a city official.“People hopefully will be intelligent enough to go, but there is no way we can completely enforce it."

Remo said residents are being informed through the city's Swift 911 notification system, and Long Beach Auxiliary Police will be going through neighborhoods tonight and tomorrow informing residents through public announcement systems. The city distributed more than 6,500 sandbags at City Hall earlier today, as residents geared up for the storm. "We distributed everything we had," Remo said.

Fire Chief Richard Corbett said that most of the Fire Department's career and volunteer members are remaining on the island, and that he has been working closely with departments in Point Lookout-Lido Beach and Atlantic Beach.

“During the height of the storm, there is going to be a time when it's unsafe for us to respond, but as soon as the winds die down, we’ll be the first ones out there,” Corbett said. “My concern is, you hope people heed the voluntary evacuations, and if it's mandatory you hope they listen to it.”