Mayor's MessageBellerose Village Mayors Message
Our Village was impacted heavily by the arrival of Hurricane Irene on Saturday and Sunday. There was a gigantic tree that came down across Commonwealth Blvd that brought down wires and cut off power to about 80 residents on Commonwealth and Huron Road. Power was finally restored on Wednesday at 6:30 PM after many calls to LIPA and to the Nassau Emergency Operations.
The patience and understanding of those residents affected was extraordinary. Many other communities were similarly affected and I thank the working folks at LIPA for responding as quickly as they could to our plight.
Our Fire Department served the community with great preparedness, diligence and caring. On Sunday night they responded to Ontairo and Pennsylvania for a tree that was threatening wires and they trimmed branches to alleviate the condition. While on the scene we were told about a huge tree that was about to topple into a house on Pennsylvania and Hudson Road.
The situation was very serious and the Fire Department had the house vacated and set up a safety zone around the threat. I was able to contact John Powers, the owner of Con Kel for assistance and he quickly contacted Walter Dryer of Dryer Tree Service to respond. His workers were able to stabilize the situation under very adverse conditions and in effect we saved the house from a potentially calamitous event.
Throughout the period of power failure, neighbors helped neighbors. Those who had generators ran lines to near neighbors to help with basic power needs and everyone checked on our older residents and helped each other to ease the impact of the storm and it's aftermath. My thanks to every one.
On Monday we started the clean up of the debris from Irene and our Maintenance Department has devoted themselves to restoring our Village to pre Irene condition. They are removing fallen tree branches on a street by street schedule, leaving minor debris for later clean up and large limbs for removal by the tree service contractor. Residents with loose debris on their property should bag as much as possible for pick up on trash days and avoid putting it in the streets.
It will take a while to clean up, but we will get it done.
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