Trees uprooted, power cut off during storm on Long Island: ‘The branches keep falling’
BALDWIN, Long Island (PIX11) — Wednesday’s storm wreaked havoc on Long Island, uprooting a tree and trapping two people inside a car in the Town of Baldwin, according to neighbors.
“We thought it was thunder when we were in the house,” said neighbor Ronald Silano. “We came out. We saw the tree down and the pole down.”
Silano was inside his home Wednesday night when he heard a loud boom after a tree collided with a car on Grand Avenue. A woman and her passenger made their way down the road.
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The powerful storm winds sent the massive tree and a utility pole toppling over and crashing into power lines just after 5 p.m. Silano said the downed tree blocked road traffic and left neighbors without power until 3 a.m. Thursday.
“She ran into it, but she had to be like right down the block, and she couldn’t stop right in time so she slid into it I’d say ’cause it happened seconds before she came up.”
According to witnesses, emergency crews rushed to the scene and rescued two people from the car before taking them to a local hospital. Police sources told PIX11 that, miraculously, the occupants inside only suffered minor injuries.
The aftermath of the extreme weather was still evident Thursday as landscapers cleared what was left of the debris. Verizon crews could be seen working to restore service to customers who were still without it, and a tree stump still stands as a stark reminder of the damage caused by ferocious winds just hours earlier.
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“They need to maintain some of these trees, you know?” questioned neighbor Khakan Ramzan. “If you look at them, it’s very overgrown, and there’s no maintenance. The branches keep falling.”
Ramzan lives nearby and said he’s been complaining to elected officials about the need to maintain trees in the area to avoid incidents like this, to no avail. He said tree limbs are constantly falling from a tree near his home onto his property, and with Wednesday’s destruction, he’s now worried about future storms.
In Nassau County, any trees on the grass close to the curb, like the tree that was uprooted, are, in fact, the county’s responsibility to maintain. PIX11 contacted the county executive’s office regarding Ramzan’s concerns about the tree near his property, but we have not yet heard back.
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