Long Island residents isolated by road collapse in August flooding finally get help
HEAD OF THE HARBOR, N.Y. — A Suffolk County community that was isolated by a road collapse in August's devastating storms and floods finally has relief.
An entire block of Head of the Harbor on Suffolk's North Shore has been cut off from the village since the Aug. 18 flood. It took ingenuity and selfless acts to find a solution.
Homeowner offers land for temporary emergency road
In September, neighbors came together with an idea – lend their land and build a temporary emergency road to run through it.
"It was an old footpath that people used to use to walk to the beach," homeowner Thomas Rubio said.
"You're very humble about this," CBS News New York's Jennifer McLogan said.
"We needed to help each other. We're all in it together," Rubio said.
Time was of the essence; an emergency order to evacuate had been issued.
"I had a lot of concerns because we were unable to reach people, certainly not with vehicles if we needed fire apparatus or an ambulance," said Head of the Harbor Police Chief Charles Lohmann.
"Everyone was just terrific. Everyone came together in a time of an emergency," Head of the Harbor Mayor Michael Utevsky said.
Emergency road built in days on Long Island
Utevsky says five-and-a-half weeks after the flood, thanks to volunteer homeowners, designs were rendered and papers signed.
"The town of Smithtown jumped right in and built the whole road in just a few days," Utevsky said.
"The loader was able to come in and sculpt it ... and then we roll it again to compress the asphalt," said Smithtown Deputy Highway Superintendent James Deutsch.
The town spent $170,000 to build the emergency road, which officials say they expect will be reimbursed by the village with federal disaster dollars.
Homeowner Dan Dresch is grateful after 44 days of waiting.
"Getting that open was such a relief for everybody. It really was," he said.
The fix is here until new permanent roads can be built.