Three Village Cleans Up After Irene

Eddie Roman didn't feel the earthquake that shook Long Island a few days ago, but after tropical storm Irene hit, he can imagine what it felt like.

The East Setauket resident was asleep at his Arrowhead Lane home at around 2 a.m. on Sunday when he felt the house shake: a tree in his yard had fallen onto the roof. They lost power, too, but not until around 5 a.m.

"I thought it was the wind at first, but I wasn't sure," he said. "It wasn't as loud as you would have thought. You felt it more than anything."

Roman, who rents, called his landlord to start the process of removing the tree. On Monday, that experience was not unique among Three Villagers, many of whom are dealing with uprooted trees, lots of debris, power outages and the residual effects of flooding.

Eevn through Monday afternoon, a number of traffic lights remained powerless as cautious drivers tried to maneuver intersections like the one at Route 25A and Quaker Path in Stony Brook. Much of the Stony Brook Village Center was closed Monday, including the Stony Brook Post Office – although one manager assured us the mail would still be delivered and the post office would be open on Tuesday powered by a generator if necessary.

RELATED: Thousands Still Without Power in Three Village

"The main concern is the lack of electricity, the lack of hot water, the lack of refrigeration," said Artie Lundquist of Stony Brook. "But the most annoying thing is probably the lack of knowledge as to when the juice will come back on. In storms past, [LILCO] had crews in from out of state. I understand that's costly, but let's look at what we're paying monthly."

Across the street from Roman, Debbie Woytowitz has a generator to run her refrigerator and a few lights. She was busy Sunday afternoon cleaning up the yard after three trees fell onto her backyard fence and a piece of her home's gutter was ripped off the house.

"We got lucky," she said. "It was only three little trees. Compared to everybody else, it's not that bad."

In East Setauket and Stony Brook, some without power found one way to occupy their time: hitting the beach, even though the waters are due to elevated bacteria levels following the storm.

"It's a beautiful day, why not?" said Tracey Zambrotta of Stony Brook. "We figured we weren't going to go to the south shore beaches because they were pretty devastated."

Inez Ammann, a 30-year resident of Stony Brook, said the water looked murky, but it's only to be expected after a storm like Irene.

"But it wasn't as bad as Hurricane Gloria," she said. "With Gloria it was a war zone when you went outside."