Flood damage in Long Island's Suffolk County prompts state of emergency

STONY BROOK, N.Y. -- Suffolk County was under a State of Emergency on Monday following Sunday night's powerful storm that brought flooding and damage to parts of Long Island.

"We knew that there was a lot of bad weather in Connecticut, but it all traveled south and it hit all along the North Shore in Suffolk County," Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said.

Romaine said the county got up to 10 inches of rain, wiping out Mill Pond and damaging six houses in Stony Brook alone.

According to Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, fire and EMS responded to more than 320 storm-related alarms between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. From Rocky Point, where cars were stuck in flooded roads, to Port Jefferson, where the fire department, despite its own flooding, still made it out to rescues.

"An environmental and economic disaster"

"This is an environmental and economic disaster," Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said. "This Mill Pond, the last time this occurred was over 100 years ago, in 1910. Millions of gallons of water, turtles, fish, everything, is down stream, along with the personal belongings of many of the houses that were flooded."

Panico called it a "catastrophe." 

"Clearly, our call now is to clean up this mess, and rebuild this Mill Pond, and get all the communities that were impacted back to normal, and that's going to take some help from our state and federal government," Romaine said. "This is going to take a lot of money and, hopefully, we have some state and federal aid, and, hopefully, the governor is thinking about declaring a limited state of emergency through northern Suffolk County."

Brookhaven Town residents who were impacted and need assistance should call 631-451-TOWN.

"Many of these areas were built a long time ago. They just have catch basins. Even recharge basins could only catch eight inches of water," Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro said.

"It sounded like a war, bombs exploding. It was really traumatic," said Charles Napoli, trustee of the Ward Melville Heritage Organization. "It's so shocking to see all the water gone, the dam breaking."

Romaine said the storm damage highlights the need for sewers in parts of Long Island.

"Their cesspools, personal belongings are now floating down this creek into the Sound," Romaine said. "As I look out and I look at all the cesspools that have flowed, and their mess flowing into the Sound, I think that's a very strong argument why Stony Brook needs sewers. And this is an ongoing struggle in Suffolk County, where more than 70% of this county is on cesspools and septics as opposed to sewers. Large areas like Stony Brook should have sewers."

Stony Brook University canceled student check-ins due to the flooding, saying "several areas of the campus and buildings have been affected." One hundred and fifty Stony Brook University students have been displaced from their dorm rooms.

Stony Brook University Hospital and Long Island State Veterans Home remained open and operating as normal, however.

Parts of Jericho Turnpike flooded after a dam overflowed in Blydenburgh Park.

"I just came back from Rocky Point. The tops of the roofs of the cars are all covered with mud. There was a huge mudslide that came down on many of the roads that lead to the Sound," Romaine said. "We are dealing with damage reports throughout this county."

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