An electric/wind storm cut a swath through Muttontown on Sunday, July 1, at around 4 p.m. that uprooted over 30 trees and resulted in electricity being lost for about 24 hours in the effected areas. Muttontown Highway Commissioner Raz Tafuro looked at a map of the village on Monday, and traced the path of the strong winds that had trees sailing through the air.

The damage in Muttontown started on Ironwood Road and headed northeast down Route 106 to Midland and Edge Roads and across to Hunter and Woodlea and on to Cecilia Drive. He said it looked as if it then headed east to Split Rock Road and Berry Hill Road.

Mr. Tafuro saw the storm as it zigzagged through the village. "The dancing winds were doing the tarantella," said Raz. The tree damage was mainly along the roads.

Barbara Tutunjian agreed it was the huge winds that caused all the damage. On Midland Road, a large tree growing on her property, snapped off and fell down, but luckily missed her house by several feet. She said she saw a neighbor out in the rain using a chain saw to take down another tree that was blocking the road.

All in all, everyone agreed the village residents took the storm in their stride. "Thank goodness there was no loss of life or limb," said Ms. Tutunjian. She knew just when the storm hit: "At 4:09 p.m. my clocks died," she said.

She disagreed with reports that called the event an electric storm. "An electric storm stays in one spot not in a million spots at once. Also there were no burns on the trees - nothing," she said. "Channel 2 said it could have been a tornado."

Commissioner Tafuto said LIPA and Asplund (working for LIPA) pay loader trucks flooded the roads as they started to pick up knocked down wires and chop down and move fallen trees Sunday evening.

Luckily, the damage happened along the roads of the village, which is mostly zoned two acres. Two cars parked on Cecilia Drive narrowly missed disaster when a tree came down between the parked vehicles. On Sterling Court, a one-month-old car was hit and damaged by a falling tree. Inside Mrs. Ejaz' house, they heard the tree coming down. The sprinkler system and fence were also badly damaged. On Monday, they were waiting for the landscaper to come and begin the work to cut down the tree and free the car. LIPA and the village take care of the roads and the residents take care of the storm damage on their own property.

On July 1 the north shore of Long Island was hit with very severe thunderstorms that started about 3:30 p.m. The first segment hit the Brookville Syosset, Muttontown and Huntington areas. Later, around 5 to 6 p.m. the second phase hit Suffolk County. Overall for that weather system, we had about 30,000 outages Islandwide, said Bert Cunningham, VP LIPA Communications.

He said the storm broke poles, cross arms and knocked out wires: it did quite a bit of physical damage to the system.

The storm, he said was reported in excess of 50 mph, with some saying it reached to 60 mph. "You go to 75 mph and it is hurricane territory.

"The electric storm, was very violent," he said.

"We had the bulk of the outages restored by midnight in all but 5,000 on Sunday night. By 7 a.m all but 1,700 were restored. There was significant damage in Muttontown where poles and powerlines were brought down and needed to be rebuilt. In places we were reconstructing an entire segment of the lines," he said.

"The final handful of customers were restored in the more severe areas a little before 6 p.m. on Monday evening," said Mr. Cunningham.

Interestingly, that doesn't end the problem, he said. "Then for the next couple of days there were storm related outages, with a branch coming down and taking out a handful of people here and there."

He also explained that the system itself can take a lightning strike and wipe out a portion of the system But more than that, a lightning strike can weaken the line along the way. And a line can suddenly fall down and that can later be traced back to when it was weakened in a lightning strike.

"We did sustain a number of lightning strikes in substations," he said. "It's powerful stuff."

He suggested there is more information on their Internet site at www:Lipower.org.

Driving around the village on Monday morning, you could smell cedar and pine in the air as chippers were at work turning limbs into sawdust.

As Commissioner Tafuro drove around people greeted him. "They know me. It makes them feel more comfortable. They know we respond right away. The husband can call the wife and say a tree was knocked down and before he comes home we've taken care of it. We respond not tomorrow, but right away," he said.

Former Deputy Mayor William Crowe was out looking at the damage. His driveway had been all blocked by the tree foliage he said. He looked especially fresh and well rested after his recent retirement.

Mr. Tafuro said when a neighbor called and reported his driveway was blocked and he couldn't get out to pick up a food order, Raz drove him over to the new Panang Restaurant in Syosset, where the order was waiting for him.

Arborist Timothy Wray of Tim-A-Tree gave his expert opinion of the storm damage.

He said the trees that came down were mostly about 40-years old. That is just the time for them to be affected by being girdled by roots. The problem began 40 years ago when the trees were planted with tight root balls. They weren't opened up and as a result the surface roots wrap back around the tree.

They needed to have root pruning done on them.

"So as a tree become larger, the crown becomes heavy with no root structure to hold it. When they reach 40 to 50 years of age and a gale force wind hits them, the top crown density of foliage acts like a sail," he said.

Another problem is a result of wood eating insects like carpernter ants. "They eat the center of the trees. They can look sound but without a sound test and some probing, it can be hollow. Sometimes you find sawdust at the base of the tree," he said.

To keep trees healthy and well rooted, he said the arborist can selectively take out some roots, if they find the tree is becoming strangled by its own root system. Mr. Wray has been working with Muttontown for 20 years.

Mr. Cunningham of LIPA communication said they have arborists on staff. Their experts tell them one of the things that is prevalent on Long Island is that the older growth trees planted 50, 60 and 70 years ago. They are getting to the end of their life cycle, he said.

Also a storm of the force we have just experienced weakens the trees and then, in the next gale, the older trees are now weaker. The result is that the next storm may be only 20 to 30 mph but may take down those trees.

The Village of Muttontown prides itself for its trees and has a tree ordinance that calls for replacing trees cut down. Mr. Tafuro said sometimes a resident believes a tree is leaning toward their house and is putting it in danger. He said the village understands the issues and works with residents in making such decisions.

Raz thanked the residents, "For being graciously patient during the storm we just had and cooperating with me, and also, for helping clean up the village. A lot of the residents cleaned up their the property and everything is getting back to normal," said Mr. Tafuro.

He also thanked LIPA, KeySpan, Verizon, Cablevision, Omnipoint, the NC Police Department, NYS DOT, and NC County, for all their help. "There were a lot of trucks and a lot of cooperation from everyone," he said.

The village will be paying for the cost of the storm damage as they do for snow removal. Raz hoped they might qualify for emergency funds, but Village Clerk/Treasurer Vivien Van Wagner said they had not received a call from FEMA. They are the ones who make the determination.

"We haven't received any federal funds for about three years," said Ms. Van Wagner.