Nearly two days after a weekend storm swept across Long Island, many residents are still picking up the pieces. Crews are working to clear downed trees and restore electricity, and the recovery has stretched well beyond the storm itself. As of this morning, PSEG Long Island was still working to restore power for about 500 remaining customers.
Some of the hardest moments fell on the most vulnerable residents. At The Tiffany, a 55 and older complex in Westbury, power was knocked out all day yesterday. Many of those affected are in their 90s and were stranded on the second or third floors with no air conditioning, left waiting for help to arrive.
The frustration was clear among those affected. One resident described looking out for the utility trucks and crews, wondering aloud when workers would come to lift the wires and offer some help to the people stuck inside. Neighbors said power at the complex was finally restored late last night.
The utility pointed to the scale of the effort behind the outages. PSEG said it was able to restore power to 12,000 customers by about four o'clock yesterday, and that crews would be back at work today to fix more complex damage left behind by the storm.
The storm's force was visible in the fallen trees across the region. In Westbury, a tree came down on top of a house and multiple cars, bringing power lines down with it. One resident recalled wanting to watch the Stanley Cup finals and the Mets and Yankees, only for everything to go out.
Other communities saw similar scenes. Another tree came down on Walnut Avenue in Hempstead, while video showed a tree down blocking the Bethpage State Parkway. The toppled trees added to the cleanup facing crews and residents in the days after the storm.
Amid the disruption, there was some relief for commuters. Service is back on the LIRR Oyster Bay branch this morning after crews worked through the night to clear debris from the tracks and fix utility poles and trees that fell during Saturday's storm. At one point there was a chance the railroad would have to offer bus service instead, but trains are once again running.