Weathering The Storm

Written by Dave Gil de Rubio Friday, 09 November 2012 00:00

Mayor Dan Petruccio declares state of emergency; village board and Petruccio also institute multiphase process towards recovery

Much like many other areas of Long Island, the Village of New Hyde Park had more than its share of work to do in wrestling with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. One of the after-effects of New Hyde Park’s power outage was village hall being devoid of electricity and phones, which caused operations to be moved to a disaster recovery facility at 498 Stewart Ave. as of Monday, Nov. 5. The severity of the storm resulted in Mayor Dan Petruccio declaring a state of emergency that was effective immediately and was to continue until further notice. In accordance with New York State Executive Law, Article 2-B, the mayor exercised the authority given to him under this statute that charges him with preserving public safety and rendering all required and available assistance vital to 
the security, well-being and health of the residents of the village.He in turn directed all departments of the Incorporated Village of New Hyde Park to take whatever steps necessary to protect life and property, public infrastructure and other such emergency assistance as deemed necessary.

As of Monday, Nov. 5, LIPA released the following numbers of households in and around the village that are still without power:

New Hyde Park – 534

North New Hyde Park - 814

Albertson - 183

Garden City Park - 361

East Williston – 216

Williston Park – 2008

While County Legislator Richard Nicolello reported that as of Monday, Nov. 5, LIPA was forecasting full restoration of power by Wednesday evening, (except for isolated customers and properties damaged beyond repair), New Hyde Park’s mayor and board of trustees had already kicked off a multiphase recovery process. Sunday, Nov. 5 saw the village’s complete cleanup, the first phase of its emergency post-storm operations, the crux of which was to ensure no locations in the village would present an obstacle for LIPA, National Grid, Verizon, the water authority, or Cablevision from completing their repair and restoration activity. 

The next day saw the deployment of the second and third phases of this plan. The former was centered on assessing and correcting non-emergent storm-related damage, which included evaluation of damaged trees and branches, the removal of debris on village property and the addressing of other damage to village property (street lamps, street signs, etc.)  Phase three, (repair and reconstruction) concurrently began and was to include curb and sidewalk replacement along with some road repairs. The example of normalcy for the village was the regularly scheduled sanitation collection although regular curbside leaf collection had been suspended until further notice.

Sewanka Central High School District continued to be closed through Tuesday with classes resuming on Wednesday as of Monday, Nov. 5. Parent-teacher conferences that were scheduled for that date were also cancelled and it became a superintendent’s conference day. Custodial staff was expected to work at their regularly scheduled time while other staff members were to have reported to their home buildings at 9 a.m. and work until their regularly scheduled departure times.

Monday will have instead been a Superintendent’s Conference Day. Any staff members who were scheduled to work on Monday were still to report to work. Any staff members who were not scheduled to work on Monday were still not scheduled to come in. Custodial staff was to report to work at regularly scheduled times. All other staff members should have reported to their home buildings at 9 a.m. and would have worked until their regularly scheduled departure times. This includes instructional staff as well as support staff in all buildings. An announcement was made on Monday about Tuesday’s schedule for staff.

Herricks schools were to have been open on Monday, Nov. 5 on a strictly limited basis. Buses were to have followed their normal routes and hot lunches were to have been served. After school activities, clubs, athletics and field trips were cancelled and schools were to have been closed on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6 as previously scheduled.

Village of New Hyde Park Hot Line Numbers

Department of Public Works: 516-354-0064

Clerk’s Office: 516-354-0022

Village Court: 516-354-6330

Residents can also email the village at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the website at www.vnhp.org.