City agencies and utility companies were still digging out late Monday afternoon from the nor’easter that pummeled the borough over the weekend.
Parks Department spokesperson Phil Abramson said 800 emergency tree damage calls came in to 311 from Brooklyn.
“Of them, 550 were trees that were downed, split or uprooted.Of those, about 70 came down on houses,” said Abramson on Monday. “While I don’t have specifics on particular parks, Parks crews were out all day yesterday, today and likely for the next few days doing storm recovery.”
Abramson said the Parks Department has 350 staffers working exclusively on storm response including three dozen forestry crews.
Private tree service contractors are also being called in to help remove trees from houses, streets and sidewalks, he said.
Community Board 15 Chair Theresa Scavo said Parks crews were clearing trees in order of priorities.
They are clearing trees that hit electrical lines first along with major streets before clearing the trees that blocked side streets, hit cars or hit houses, she said.
Among the hardest hit areas were Manhattan Beach and Sheepshead Bay, where at least two sailboats were sunk during the storm. Others were ripped from their moorings.
One of them slammed into the Ocean Avenue footbridge. The pedestrian span was roped off the following day but it was open again on Monday.
Storm surges left thick ocean debris along Shore Boulevard near Exeter Street, as well as Holocaust Memorial Park.
Parks crews were out on Sunday cleaning up. Awnings were ripped and trees were toppled around Manhattan Beach and up to Kings Highway.
Scavo said there was a lot of attention from city agencies being paid to the three-story community facility building under construction at 177 Mackenzie Street, in which the upper two floors came down on the house next store.
Although no one was injured, engineers and the city Department of Environmental Protection both examined the damage and determined both houses have to be demolished, she said.
Scavo said police were out there all day and are not letting anybody in the inhabited house for the residents to collect any belongings, she said.
Also across the borough, the lights winked out and refused to come back.
For many, power returned within a few hours, although by late Sunday, there were still 580 Con Edison customers in Canarsie as well as over 10,000 Marine Park residents, 344 Midwood residents and 71 Bay Ridge residents without power. Their repair times were “pending,” according to Con Edison officials.
Up in Canarsie, Paerdegat Avenue North was shut down because of fallen trees. So was Stuart Street in Marine Park, which lost a reported ten trees. In Marine Park itself, an additional 15 trees were bowled over, stunned witnesses said.
“This is one of the worst storms we’ve had,” said Canarsie native and former Assemblymember Frank Seddio. “I don’t recall another time we’ve lost power the way we did. I don’t think there was a single property that wasn’t damaged in some way, shape or form.”
—with Tom Tracy
