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Irene Pummels South Shore |
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Mastic Beach socked with ‘cane’s fury |
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| By PEGGY SPELLMAN HOEY | |
| Hurricane Irene was like the little girl, but
with a wicked curl – when she was bad, she was horrid. The category 1 tropical storm whipped through the South Shore early Sunday morning with an intensity not seen by many residents since her older sibling, Gloria, wreaked havoc on Long Island in 1985. The hurricane, originating from down south, hurled 55-mph winds and rain, toppling trees and utility lines in its path along the coastline. The natural phenomenon, coupled with a new moon at high tide forced a surge of water that breached Fire Island National Seashore and flooded coastal areas from Blue Point to Mastic Beach Village where the heaviest toll must still be assessed by officials. “I was freaking out,” said Lori Dinattei when she returned to her home inside the mandatory evacuation area of Mastic Beach Sunday afternoon, adding that news reports of the water coming in a half a mile in from the bay sent her into a tizzy. “We are only 1,000 feet [from the bay], so I just assumed we were under water.” Instead, Dinattei, who stayed with a friend in East Yaphank, found her home intact, though not-too-old trees to either side of it had keeled over in Irene’s wake. “I love living here because it is beautiful and it is right by the water but it is scary,” she said. East Yaphank resident Michelle Queal, who put Dinattei and her husband up for the night, described the hurricane as pretty benign in her book. “There was a lot of wind,” she recalled, adding, “There wasn’t much rain at all; not really a heavy downpour. We did not even lose electric.” Denattei’s block was one of hundreds Suffolk officials on Friday placed under mandatory evacuation in anticipation of a massive surge predicted by some to breach Montauk Highway. Not everyone was riled enough to leave home by the threat of Irene’s fury alone; many chose to stay behind. “I saw worse with Hurricane Gloria,” said Calvin Becket, a 16-year resident of Mastic Beach, who braved out the hurricane inside his home within the evacuation area along with his wife, Ida. Becket, a life-long resident of the South Shore said he slept through the hurricane and while there might be flooding and downed trees, it was pretty much confined to specific areas. “It depends on where you live,” he said. Ida somewhat agreed. “I think we have more tree damage than we’ve seen before,” she said. “There were trees down everywhere and the roads were blocked.” Shirley resident Christina Munoz, who along with her daughter stopped on Saturday to photograph a boardedup 7-Eleven on William Floyd Parkway, said she chose to stay and protect her home from looters. A resident of the hamlet for 10 years, she chalked it up to the price Long Islanders have to pay for living in a waterfront area.
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“It has its beauty and it has its fury, so I am captain of the Titanic and I’m going to ride her out,” said Munoz, whose husband took their two children and dog to another family member’s home. Munoz said she stocked up on necessities in case of a power outage and was prepared to cook on a grill, but joked about the possibility of having to take a cold shower. “If I can find somebody with a water heater, we can do a trade,” she said jokingly. “I’ll cook you a steak, if you let me take a shower. I’ll be like ‘Wimpy’” she said of the character from the cartoon Popeye, adding his famous one-liner from the cartoon, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Mastic Beach Deputy Mayor Gary Stiriz, who also stayed behind, said the water flooded over from the bay up until about halfway up Hickory Drive, but the floodwater was not that deep as compared with prior storms. “I’m used to it,” Stiriz, who kayaked through his building, said Monday. “I’ve been here 43 years, so I know that you do not leave anything on the floor when a storm is coming.” At about 8 a.m. water washed through the Mastic- Shirley Peninsula flooding the surrounding streets, partially submerging homes in Mastic Beach. By nightfall, marinas 1 and 5 were underwater, appearing level with Moriches Bay. Not everybody was put off by the safety concern, though — some residents enjoyed the feeling of walking, biking and driving through the water to take in the damages with cell phones and video recorders. By Monday morning, the floodwaters had receded and electricity was restored on much of the peninsula. “I was pleasantly surprised and relieved,” said Rep. Tim Bishop, who surveyed the coastline with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand during a flyover with the U.S. Coast Guard Monday morning. Despite the receding waters, Bishop said Mastic Beach appears to have borne the brunt of the hurricane. At first, Bishop said the reports conjured images of the flooded out homes in the 9th Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina barreled through in 2005. Instead, Bishop noted the damage in his district was not as severe. There was an over wash in Point of Woods, but some areas in his district gained sand and the coastline, for the most part, looked remarkably good. “I thought we were going to have hundreds of homes flooded out, but that does not appear to be the case at all,” he said. Robert DeBona, president of the Mastic Beach Property Owners’ Association, a not-for-profit organization that maintains the marinas, estimated Marina 1 sustained about $5,000 in damage during Hurricane Irene. “It looks like an ordinary day today,” he said Monday. “When I went down there today, I could not believe how dry it was.” |
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