Irene Floods Allegria, Crashes Lifeguard Station, Downs Trees in Long Beach

When Cathy Herrick returned to Long Beach from her sister's house in Massapequa at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the wake of Hurricane Irene, she found three large trees were down on her street, the 600 block of East Walnut Street.

Soon aftern, Alan Nafte, Jim Warren, Ryan Denapoli and Mario Maltese came to the rescue.

“A car pulled up and four very nice young men with chain saws cut up the trees and pushed them over to the side and made the road passable,” Herrick said. “The neighbors took a collection and handed it to them but they all refused.”

This was one of many common scenes in Long Beach after the storm brought winds in excess of 70 mph and heavy rain that downed trees, flooded homes and streets and moved some structures.

The most spectacular flooding was at the garage and lobby floor at the Allegria Hotel, where there was still knee-high flooding Sunday afternoon.

The power of the hurricane also propelled ocean water through the 10- to 15-food high sand berms that were formed on National Boulevard beach outside the hotel and in front of the lifeguard station, which was lifted off its foundation and knocked into the boardwalk Sunday morning.

Many people curious about Irene’s destruction on the beach gathered on the boardwalk around the hotel area with cameras in hand, taking photos of the flooding and clean up efforts.  

Traffic on the eastbound side of West Broadway outside the hotel was blocked off, and backed on the west side, as Long Beach police officers directed traffic.

Meanwhile, over on Vinton Street in the Canals, in the northeast section of the city, some residents had flooding with others were dry.   

Mark Lartigale used sump pump to clear water out of his garage Sunday afternoon.

“The street went from being dry to having about three to four feet of water over the moon tide,” Lartigale said. “It only went into my garage. I put up barriers in the house.”

But the homes of his next-door neighbor, Bob Mazzella, and Diane Weiss, who lives across the street, had water only near their doors.  

“The water came up to my deck, which is level with the floor in my house, but it didn’t go into my house,” Mazzella said.

“The water went up to my porch but no water came in,” said Diane Weiss, who lives across the street. “We’re fine. We were lucky.”

Madaleine Weinstein, another Vinton Street resident, left the city Saturday.

She parked her car in Westbury and stayed the night at friend’s niece’s home in Rockville Centre.

She decided to return to Long Beach after 11:30 a.m. Sunday, once she knew the brunt of the storm went off to the north.

“We were watching TV and we could see things were calm and clear,” Weinstein said her decision to go back home.  

She boarded up her home, particularly two large slidine doors, and didn’t have any flooding.