Area may have been hit with a tornado

From CBS 2:

Queens residents are waking up to storm damage Friday after severe weather moved through the area.

After 10 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Queens, the Bronx and northern Nassau County and some College Point residents reported seeing funnel clouds, CBS2’s Jenna DeAngelis reported.

It’s still not clear if a tornado did in fact touch down, but severe thunderstorms did roll through the area, knocking down trees and power lines.

A two-mile stretch of College Point to Whitestone took the brunt of the damage, however there have reports elsewhere. In Jackson Heights, pictures of downed trees were taken near 86th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.

Scary moments at Breezy Point

From CBS:

The unsettled weather, part of a cold front that crossed over the Eastern Seaboard, toppled trees and power lines and damaged buildings as it passed through. Wind gusts reached 70 miles per hour in some places.

Videos taken by bystanders showed a funnel sucking up water, then sand, and then small pieces of buildings as the first tornado moved through the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

At the Breezy Point Surf Club, it ripped the roofs off rows of cabanas, scattered deck chairs and left a heavy metal barbecue and propane tank sitting in the middle of a softball field, at least 100 yards from any home.

Parks hopes to replace trees on the cheap

From the Times Ledger:

Nearly three months after a microburst decimated McDonald Park in Forest Hills, the once-shady green space has remained nearly treeless, but the city has a plan.

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski said the city Parks Department will partner with a nonprofit hopefully to replace the trees by next spring.

“We have been reaching out with different organizations to help with donations for park trees,” she said.

One group that responded was the New York Restoration Project, which will visit the park along with department officials Jan. 7 to assess the damage and devise a plan to replace the trees.

In McDonald Park, 58 trees were destroyed by the storm, and many of them were little-leaf lindens, which gave the park its character, according to Lewandowski.

“They are very nice, ornamental trees that would flower or fruit at different times of the year,” she said, “and would give the park that little extra spark.”

The trees have not been replaced yet because the city focuses on street trees before it deals with foliage in the park. In addition, money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides aid in the aftermath of disasters, does not cover trees. And the large plants are not cheap.

The city shops for the replacements in nurseries throughout the tri-state area, where one tree can end up costing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on its size, age and how it is planted.

If the city has to hire contractors to install the trees, as it does with street trees, the cost will increase. But if residents volunteer to help plant the trees, the process becomes much cheaper.

Tree contractor asleep on the job

Dear Queens Crap,

I live in Kew Gardens Hills. I came home from work today around 2:30PM, and found two city tree removal contractor trucks (allegedly removing trees from last month's storm) sitting on my block, taking up lots of parking along the street, blocking the turn loop at the dead end, and idling their trucks. The workers were sleeping quite soundly in their trucks. My wife tells me that they've been out there idling and napping since at least 1PM. My next door neighbor said they've been doing this for the last two days.

Here's some pictures I took.

The worst part is that there really aren't any trees left to clean up in this area, because the co-op I live in had most of them removed weeks ago.

And people wonder why the city and state are broke.

Regards,

The Mighty Omega

Cemeteries devastated by storm

From the Daily News:

WHEN QUEENS was battered by severe storms and two twisters 10 days ago, neighbors banded together to help each other until the emergency crews showed up.

But what happens if your neighborhood covers more than 200 acres and is populated by the dearly departed?

Several cemeteries in Queens faced that problem last week as they struggled to recover.

City cleanup workers won't venture onto these properties unless the damage was done by a street tree.

Things were in such disarray at Mount Hebron and Cedar Grove cemeteries in Flushing that workers discovered a highway sign from the Van Wyck Expressway and a portable toilet.

"I'm not sure where it came from," Jerry Hass, president of the Cedar Grove Cemetery Association, said about the portable toilet.

"We're just lucky that it happened at 6p.m. and not 2 p.m. Anyone out on the grounds at that time would have been killed."

Hass said he was heartened to receive calls from administrators of other cemeteries offering help.

It's unclear whether cemeteries such as All Faiths, which is nonprofit, will be eligible for disaster aid.

Photo by nutrichris on Flickr

Storm wrapup features yours truly

Queens Crap was featured in a news report!



NEW YORK (WPIX) — People in Queens are giving credit to PIX 11 News for the recent surge of city cleanup crews in storm-ravaged neighborhoods.

"Amazing What Embarrassing TV Coverage Will Do" was the headline Tuesday on the popular blog Queens Crap, which spotlighted Greg Mocker's report on the rush of tree-removal crews to the Middle Village area, which was hit by a tornado on September 16.

PIX 11 brought increased attention to the neighborhood with reports on the slow progress of the cleanup. While city officials denied PIX 11's coverage triggered the cleanup surge, people commenting on Queens Crap disagreed.

"Bloomberg hates to have his 'Bloomberg' brand tarnished with negative comments particularly on TV," wrote one person.

That was echoed by "Linda" who said: "Who cares what sign is on the truck, the damn trees are getting cleaned up!"

Heh. I'm glad someone is paying attention. The rest of the news crews left a long time ago.

Brooklyn got help from the U.S. Forest Service.

CITYWIDE TORNADO WATCH UNTIL 6pm

TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 686
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
1100 AM EDT TUE SEP 28 2010

TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 600 PM EDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

NEW YORK COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ALBANY, BRONX, BROOME,
CHENANGO, COLUMBIA, DELAWARE,
DUTCHESS, GREENE, KINGS,
MADISON, MONTGOMERY, NASSAU,
NEW YORK, ONEIDA, ORANGE,
OTSEGO, PUTNAM, QUEENS,
RENSSELAER, RICHMOND, ROCKLAND,
SCHENECTADY, SCHOHARIE, SULLIVAN,
ULSTER, WESTCHESTER

Mr. Telephone Man, there's something STILL wrong with my line...

From the NY Post:

About 1,000 more Queens households than usual still had no landline phone service 10 days after storms tore through the borough, officials said yesterday.

Verizon estimated that 2,000 Queens customers had no working landlines. That's about double its normal number of outages.

The officials attributed the delay to downed trees and phone lines still hampering restoration.

Verizon normally has 1,000 landlines down in Queens? Sheesh...

Photo from the NY Times

Still waiting...

 
 
 
From the Daily News:

The city said Thursday it won't charge tornado-battered New Yorkers to replace the ruined sidewalks outside their homes and businesses.

Just don't ask when the repairs are going to get done.

"We're just asking patience," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said in Forest Hills, Queens. "The thing we need to do is address the hazards first."

Hundreds of workers across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island are still clearing trees and other wreckage left after two tornados and one nasty "macroburst" blew through the city last week.

"Right now, we have hundreds of unsafe trees everywhere," said Robert Holden of the Juniper Park Civic Association in Middle Village, a Queens neighborhood hit hard by the storms.

"We have dangling branches and giant branches sitting on other branches. It's an accident waiting to happen," Holden said.

Cleanup continues

From NBC 4:

With so much damage from twin tornados, some areas in the the city have yet to be cleaned up. Mayor Bloomberg is pleading for patience -- and hoping he doesn't have an historic "Queens Problem." Tim Minton reports.

(If embedded video above doesn't work, click link.)

Message from Queens Civic Congress

SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS.

The city is collecting information on damages in order to qualify for federal disaster funds. You can help. Call 311 and report damage to your home or car--even if a downed tree was on your property. You will be asked for an estimate of the cost of repairs. Do this ASAP.

QCC has been working city elected officials to push city agencies to clean up the mess in Queens.

City officials estimate the cost of storm damage in the city at about $50 million. Almost 3,000 trees came down and hundreds of buildings were damaged. Very few people were hurt.

At Congressman Weiner's Town Hall meeting last night, city officials announced that all Queens streets are now passable. It will be days or weeks before tree debris is fully removed and parking spaces restored. If a tree is blocking your street, or if a hanging tree limb appears dangerous, report it to 311. ASAP.

It is your responsibility to remove and pay for downed trees that belonged to you. Homeowners whose community driveways are blocked must remove trees and other debris.

If your home, car or other property was damaged by the storm, obtain an estimate of how much repairs will cost. If you have insurance, make a claim now.

At this time there are no public funds to help with repairs to homes cars etc.

Pat Dolan, Pres.

Photos from Flushing

Rego Park/Forest Hills tornado damage

From CBS 2:

Four days after devastating storms ripped through the area, streets in Queens were still a mess.

Fallen trees — including Oaks and Sycamores — were still blocking some streets and crews were removing large tree branches from the roofs of several homes Monday evening.

68th Road in Forest Hills is the picture of disaster — cars smashed and debris still to be cleaned up and where tree limbs were being lifted off of one home.

“It’s devastating. It’s like a bomb was dropped,” resident Warren Wankoff said.

With four days passing since the storm hit and power lines down all over the place, storm victim Lorraine Gister has had enough.

“Mayor Bloomberg, when are you going to help us? We’re part of this city even though we’ve been forgotten,” Gister told CBS 2′s John Slattery.

Gister wanted to know when the debris will be cleared, and when her phone service will come back.

“I have two sick people in the family. I have no phone since Thursday,” Gister said.

Mayor Bloomberg said he understood the frustration and assured residents that city crews were working hard to ensure the cleanup is finished soon.


From CBS 2:

As FEMA began assessing whether the city’s storm damage qualifies for aid, Congressman Anthony Weiner cautioned residents who were expecting too much from the federal government at a Tuesday night town hall in Forest Hills.

“I want New Yorkers to understand, these are not like pennies from heaven. No one’s going to knock on your door with a bag full of twenties for your trouble,” Weiner said.

CBS 2′s John Slattery asked the mayor on Tuesday if he was considering another first-hand look at the tornado damage.

“I was out there before you even knew there was a storm, looking at trees and talking to people,” Bloomberg said, “I have not considered going out again.”

Bloomberg said the his presence and the media coverage in neighborhoods with major problems could be detrimental to the cleanup and advised that it would be better to stay out of the way and let professionals do their jobs.

Still, storm victims continued to be frustrated by what they perceived as little help from authorities.

“It’s a debris field and the city has done absolutely nothing,” one man said.

Middle Village devastation

From A Walk in the Park:

Many of the neighborhood’s majestic older trees fell victim to the storm. The center of the destruction seemed to be around Juniper Valley Park and the Furmanville Avenue area but few streets south of Eliot Avenue were spared. Juniper Valley Park lost dozens of trees particularly two 100-year old Scarlet Oaks. Several blocks from 80th street to Woodhaven Boulevard off Furmanville Avenue lost many or most of their trees.




As of Monday morning, you still don't see a force of chippers out here. At this pace it will take a very along time to clear the area. We are still discovering more devastation.

One from Auburndale

Dear Queenscrap, I'm sure you received hundreds of pictures regarding the recent storm, when I sent this one to my pals, they insisted it be sent to you. It's 189th st. And 42ave in Auburndale. Its still not cleaned up. Thanks.

Adam in Auburndale

Photos of storm damage in Glendale

Historic church's steeple destroyed by storm

From the Daily News:

A 45-foot wooden spire atop historic St. George's Episcopal Church in Queens crashed to the street in Thursday night's storm, denting a bus, showering another with debris but harming no one.

Although officials couldn't say for sure, the Rev. Edwin Chase, the assistant pastor, is sure the cause was a lightning strike.

"I was closing the windows when I heard a loud bang and felt the hairs on my arms stand up," he said.

"I though for a second the bell was going to fall down on me but it stayed put," Chase said.

Chase and six parishioners ran out to Main St. in Flushing to find it covered by "tons of timber that came down."

"I'm so extremely relieved that no people were injured or hurt," he said.

Police blocked off busy Main St. between 38th and 39th Aves. for hours while work crews cleaned up the mess.

A wood and copper cross dating back nearly 200 years was pulled out of the rubble and returned to Chase by a firefighter.

Chase said it was too early to tell how much repairs would cost.

Hey folks, by the volume of e-mails I've received I know you are dying for storm damage coverage. Thanks for all the photos and videos. Still sorting through them all as well as cleaning up my personal mess. But I should have more up by the end of the day. Here's more of Flushing: