She came, she blew through, and left a trail of havoc behind her. Hurricane Irene, the worst storm to hit Long Island since Hurricane Gloria has come and gone, but we are still feeling the lingering effects of her presence as we head into Labor Day weekend. Although she was downgraded to a tropical storm as she hit Long Island, Irene managed to knock down hundreds, if not thousands of trees, and leave over half a million Long Islanders without electricity, many of whom are still waiting for the power to be turned back on. In addition to the major wind damages, there were reports of flooding all over the Island causing massive property damage, and there have been dozens of fatalities along the East Coast. LIPA, along with the local authorities are reassuring Long Islanders that they are doing their best to get everything back up and operating, but for many of those still left in the dark, that is of little consolation. With the amount of damage that has been caused by the storm, putting back together the pieces is turning out to be a much longer and involved process that anticipated, leaving many of us in a tricky spot while trying to get back to our normal daily lives. The only positive reflection about this natural disaster is that it did spark a true sense of community on Long Island, bringing neighbors together for damage control and clean up. Many neighborhoods were brought together for bittersweet moments such as BBQs providing emotional support for each other as they cooked everything that would spoil had they left it in the fridge with no power. In the quiet moments while we have been knocked back into analog, many friends and family spent quality time together playing board games and talking – quality time shared that admittedly tends to be brought out by the misfortune of disaster. As we move forward Long Island, we hope that you and yours are safe, and that everything will be restored back to a sense of normalcy soon. We have included resources at the bottom of the page for LIPA as well as the local authorities, should you still be in need of assistance. If you have any stories or pictures of Hurricane Irene that you would like to share, please send them to news@longisland.com, and we will be sure to include you in any hurricane updates we have. Post Your Photos to our Hurricane Irene Facebook Photo Album Resources and More Information Available At: LIPA Storm Center - See the current outages here or Report an outage to 800-490-0075 or 631-755-6900 Red Cross' Long Island Disaster Preparedness Site Nassau County's Site - Features Local Updates, Safety & Evacuation Information Suffolk County's Site - Features Local Updates, Safety & Evacuation Information
