Post-Irene Clean-Up Continues

Town officials: 98 percent of fallen trees and debris removed from roads

From The North Shore Sun By | September 2, 2011

JENNIFER GUSTAVSON PHOTO | Brookhaven Town officials met with local resident Wendy Charles, left, where the last remaining downed tree entangled in electrical wires rests in Gordon Heights.

Brookhaven Town officials met on Thursday with 4th Council District residents and found most of the trees that fell after Tropical Storm Irene hit the area this past weekend have finally been removed.

Supervisor Mark Lesko, along with 4th District Councilwoman Connie Kepert and Highway Superintendent John Rouse, visited a homeowner in Gordon Heights where the neighborhood’s final downed tree remained entangled in electrical wires.

Wendy Charles, who has lived on Murray Lane since 1997, said the mature tree crashed on a power line and fell onto the road early Sunday morning.

“We’re hoping this will be resolved soon,” Ms. Charles said, adding that the live wires were first turned off by the Long Island Power Authority about 15 minutes prior to the town officials’ visit.

Ms. Kepert said that as she drove around the area Thursday she found most of the reported downed trees, including on Wilson Avenue and West Bartlett Road, have been removed.

Mr. Rouse said 98 percent of tree and debris removal has been completed townwide. Out of the 482 calls from SunLand residents reporting downed trees, 117 were LIPA’s responsibility, since the power utility is responsible for taking care of fallen trees over electrical wires, he said. Mr. Rouse said he estimates LIPA has addressed about one-third of those calls as of Thursday.

“But for LIPA, we would be pitching a perfect game,” Mr. Rouse said. “This operation from the town’s side was almost seamless — multiple departments working together to keep our roads and residents safe.”

Mr. Rouse said he believed there needs to be a liaison between town management and LIPA field crews in place before the next major storm hits in order to improve clean-up efforts.

While many downed trees have been removed, a tree remained twisted in electrical wires Thursday afternoon across Old Country Road in Middle Island near Harold Lilie’s home.

“We lost about four trees,” he said, adding that a LIPA crew was scheduled visit his home on Thursday evening. “Thankfully nobody was hurt.”

As LIPA continues to detangle electrical wires from downed trees, many LIPA customers have regained power, even though some areas saw an increase in power outages between Monday and Tuesday of this week.

“It was strange because it seemed like the heavy winds had already passed when the lights went out,” Ms. Kepert said.

jennifer@northshoresun.com