Cleanup continues on Long Island after historic flooding
COMMACK, N.Y. -- Suffolk County is continuing to assess and clean up the damage from the powerful storm that pummeled the region Sunday.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine declared a state of emergency following the storm, which wrecked numerous roads, damaged homes, rail lines, and wiped out Mill Pond in Stony Brook.
An historic 60 foot long concrete dam at Blydenberg park broke, draining stump pond, a beloved 100-acre lake filled with fish and wildlife. Tuesday, the bottom of stump pond was visible - stumps that had been submerged for more than 100 years. Almost all the pond's water was sent cascading into streets and the Nissequogue River.
It's the second dam to breach in two days after the rain deluged parts of Suffolk County's North Shore.
"An ecological, environmental and economic disaster"
Romaine says damage estimates are climbing.
"What we've seen in the last day is an ecological, environmental and economic disaster," Romaine said.
The damage is widespread, and stretches from Rocky Point, where cars were stuck in flooded roads, to Port Jefferson, where the fire department still made it out rescues despite being flooded itself.
In Stony Brook, disastrous flooding caused Harbor Road to collapse, draining all the water from Mill Pond at Avalon Park. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico called that an "environmental and economic disaster."
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