Half-million without power across Long Island - Citizens Voice

LONG BEACH, N.Y. - The modest headquarters for the beach patrol in this Atlantic Coast community became an instant tourist attraction Sunday, hours after Tropical Storm Irene's violent waves knocked the structure from its moorings and deposited it square into the boardwalk.

The dislodgment, broadcast live on national television as Irene made landfall on Long Island, thrust the battered shack into an unlikely role as symbol of the storm, and drew hundreds to the beach Sunday afternoon for a first-hand look and a few pictures for posterity.

Robin Crino, of nearby Franklin Square, N.Y., brought her daughters to the beach to see the headquarters and a nearby lake created when the storm's crushing surge sent salt water and sand under the boardwalk and onto the street.

The trip provided a diversion, she said, from the destruction in her neighborhood - a story that played out across Long Island's mainland: toppled trees and the loss of electricity.

"What are we going to do, sit there?" Crino said. "We have no internet, we have no phone and the cell phone is not working that great. I was like, 'let's just go to the water.'"

On Long Beach, which had been projected to take a direct hit from the storm, properties and streets away from the beach were largely spared. Even along the beach, Lynn Eskenazki said, streets were largely unaffected by the storm surge.

"The storm surge came up and the lifeguard tower moved, and that's why everybody's here," Eskenazki said, "But all the other streets around here were not flooded."

Across Long Island, nearly a half-million people remained without power as of 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The local utility, the Long Island Power Authority, appeared inundated by the storm and hundreds of downed lines and poles. In Northport, on the North Shore, a 13,000-volt line burned along the ground for hours, threatening homes and frightening onlookers with occasional explosions, before repair crews could cut power.

The line came down before 9 a.m., just as the core of Irene reached Long Island, according to Northport firefighter Greg Cantone, and remained live well past 1 p.m.

"The weather people were absolutely right: this is a vicious storm," Long Beach chief of lifeguards Paul Gillespie said. "This is the first time I've ever seen the entire beach covered with the ocean."

msisak@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2061