Thunderbolt 12: Nassau’s North Shore preps for October nor’easter

News 12’s Andrew Ehinger was with Thunderbolt 12 in Glenwood Landing to see how Long Islanders and the Long Island Rail Road are preparing.

News 12 Staff

Oct 25, 2021, 7:40 PM

Updated 1,137 days ago

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Heavy rains are expected to drench Long Island Monday evening into Tuesday just as some residents say they recently dried out for Ida.
News 12’s Andrew Ehinger was with Thunderbolt 12 in Glenwood Landing to see how Long Islanders and the Long Island Rail Road are preparing.
The MTA says it has extra crews watching the storm and hopefully trains will be running without issue Tuesday.
“Between our crews and communications, we feel like there will be a normal morning rush,” says Robert Free of the MTA.
Flooding has been a persistent problem at the Great Neck station so Free says they have checked drains and culverts to make sure the draining system is working properly.
The flooding was so bad that Gov. Kathy Hochul came to inspect the repairs.
Sea Cliff resident Joyce Barondess says during Ida, they had close to 7 feet of water in two hours.
She says storm runoff completely flooded her Sea Cliff basement and destroyed most of her possessions.
“I pray it doesn’t happen to anyone else of course,” Barondess says. “I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that.”
Many other Long Islanders are also still recovering from that storm and are hoping the forecast is wrong this time.
Michael Iacono, of Upper Brookville, says flooding has always been an issue on Donna Drive, but he says Ida and other storms have caused problems due to a nearby sump and runoff from a golf course.
He says he got extra pumps and sandbags to protect his home because the intense, fast rainstorms overwhelm drains, and everything flows downhill into his home.
“When you have, you know, more than 2 to 3 inches of rain in a short period of time, it can’t handle it,” Iacono says. “The sump was built in 1964 and hasn’t been maintained since.”
He says he hopes the Town of Oyster Bay and the village of Upper Brookville can get together and come up with a solution for recent flooding in the area.