‘A wall of water and wind’: Severe storm leaves thousands without power in Riverhead

More than 3,700 PSEG-LI customers remain without power in Riverhead Town Sunday morning after a powerful thunderstorm blew through the town, toppling at least 50 trees, pulling down wires, igniting power line fires and causing major traffic jams from Wading River to Laurel as Fourth of July revelers tried to make their way home.

PSEG-Long Island is reporting 13,789 customers without power systemwide as of 9 a.m. Sunday. The utility said in a statement its crews will be working throughout the weekend to restore power as quickly as possible. 

Riverhead Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski described the storm’s impacts as “mayhem” and “like a tornado came through.” He said at least 50 trees were down across town, with many blocking roadways. About 20 trees can’t be touched yet, because of wires downed by or entangled in the trees, he said.

“We have to wait for PSEG,” Zaleski said. 

Riverhead Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin said he had spoken to a PSEG representative Sunday morning and expected a status update at 9 a.m.

Cleanup efforts will be ongoing all week, Halpin said.

“RPD last night did a phenomenal job, responding, getting, getting to people and making those calls,” the supervisor said. “Everybody was responding to different calls.”

Riverhead Police Chief Ed Frost said the intensity of the storm was unexpected.

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued for the area by the National Weather Service at 3:41 p.m. Saturday. The chief and town fire marshal moved the fireworks up from 9:30 to 9 p.m. to avoid the storm. “I was watching the weather,” Frost said. They then decided to start the fireworks show even earlier.

The watch was upgraded to a severe thunderstorm warning moments before the storm struck. The warning sent a critical alert to mobile phones at 8:58 p.m.

The storm hit hard and fast soon after. Thunder, lighting, strong winds and heavy rain began right after the town’s fireworks show ended.

After the show concluded, traffic leaving the town beach parking lot had difficulty moving on the narrow two-lane boulevard, which by that point was lined with parked cars and crowded with pedestrians leaving the show as rain began.

Photographer describes harrowing experience

One eyewitness was RiverheadLOCAL photographer Emil Breitenbach Jr.,of Aquebogue, who attended the event with his fiancé Stephanie Visek. They were stuck in traffic on Peconic Bay Boulevard and drove east to Bray Avenue in Mattituck to find a road that seemed clear enough to use to drive towards Main Road. 

This morning, Breitenbach described the scene on Main Road. 

“We were driving along. Then all of a sudden, we see, about 50 feet in front of us, like a wall of water and wind. It came at us. It seemed like a hurricane or tornado,” Breitenbach, 35, said of the way the storm overtook them.

Then, out of nowhere, they heard and felt a loud crash and all the glass in Visek’s car shattered.

“You couldn’t reach through it, but the windshield and windows were all smashed in, and both of us were completely covered in glass — everything from like a quarter-inch to microscopic pieces of glass,” Breitenbach said. 

It was pitch black. They couldn’t see anything but the leaves and branches of a tree they assumed had fallen right on the car. 

“We couldn’t do anything,” he said. They called 911 and remained inside the car, waiting, in case the tree had taken down live wires with it. 

“It was absolutely wild. We’re sitting in the car, covered in glass. The glass shattered enough that water is just coming in, because it’s raining like a hurricane outside,” Breitenbach said. 

“Within like maybe 5 or 10 minutes, the cops were there, and then they had to — the fire department had to chainsaw the tree away to even move the car,” he said. 

Both Breitenbach and Visek were “shook up” by the incident, he said, but fortunately were not injured. 

Zaleski said this morning that the southeast track of the storm from the Long Island Sound diagonally across Riverhead to the river and South Fork meant that western and central areas of the town were hit hardest.

“Howell Avenue was like World War III,” Zaleski said. “Timber Park [in Calverton] is terrible,” he said.

Riverhead Highway crews were out most of the night working to clear downed trees and limbs. “Everything is passable this morning, but cleanup will be going on all week,” Zaleski said.

The severe thunderstorm struck the area between about 9:05 and 9:30 p.m. It packed a punch. A NWS trained weather spotter reported 87 mph gusts in Baiting Hollow at 9:20 and 9:23 p.m. Gusts in excess of 60 mph were reported across the region, according to the National Weather Service in New York.

Power lines and transformers caught fire as trees and branches fell or lightning struck. 

First responders bombarded with calls for help

The severe storm kept Riverhead Police and members of the local fire departments and EMS busy as they responded to numerous emergency incidents throughout the area.

Riverhead Police handled 15 calls between 9 and 10 p.m. Saturday, Frost said.

In addition to handling three EMS calls, the Jamesport Fire Department responded to a motor vehicle accident in which a tree fell onto a vehicle with reports of people trapped, Jamesport Fire Chief Dan Doroski said. The department also provided mutual aid to the Riverhead Fire Department assisting them during an exceptionally high call volume related to the storm, he said. Crews also responded on mutual aid to the Flanders Fire Department for a water rescue. The department additionally responded to a call for wires down caused by the storm, Doroski said.

“As the storm started we had members on our fire boat standing by for the town’s fireworks show who assisted boaters return to their vehicles,” Doroski said.

Wading River Fire Department answered 16 calls starting at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday, Wading River fire Chief Thomas Whelan said Sunday morning. 

“Many calls came in as structure fires,” Whelan said. But they were all wires or transformers burning. Firefighters responded and waited for PSEG-LI crews to turn off power, or they waited for the fires to burn out, ensuring that flames didn’t spread to brush or structures.  Response was complicated by all the downed trees and limbs blocking or partially blocking roads.

“I’m very proud of the response of our members,” Whelan said. The storm came through fast and furiously. “It was very hectic, but I think we handled it pretty well. I’m very proud of how our members handled it all.”

Riverhead Fire Chief Pete Kurzyna said his department responded to 22 calls within a one-hour period, including downed trees and wires, transformer fires, a gas leak and a dumpster fire. 

“The dispatcher had like five calls coming in at a time, and he was just banging it out,” Kurzyna said. “We had every engine, every piece of apparatus from our district, involved yesterday,” he said.

Then at 1:30 a.m. Riverhead Fire Department was called out to assist Flanders Fire Department on a mutual aid call for a working structure fire on East Street, Kurzyna said.

Flanders Fire Chief Nick Van Vliet said his department responded to 13 alarms Saturday night during the peak of the storm. When firefighters arrived at the firehouse for the first call, he said, they found the entrance to the firehouse blocked by trees across the driveway to the firehouse.

“We actually had to walk up to get tools and cut up trees just to get into the firehouse,” Van Vliet said, “so it was a little rough at first.”

The alarm for a structure fire on East Street came in at 1:25 a.m. The cause is undetermined. The occupants of the home a married couple and thier dog, safely evacuated from the home, Van Vliet said.

“The Jamesport Fire Department thanks all of its dedicated firefighters for their professionalism and commitment throughout the night, as well as our neighboring departments for their continued partnership during these challenging weather events,” Doroski said. “We also remind residents to use caution after severe storms by avoiding downed power lines, flooded roadways, and other storm-related hazards.”

Hundreds lost power in the downtown Riverhead area and Flanders, according to PSEG-LI.

“While outages are scattered across the service area, eastern Suffolk County received the worst weather, with more than 70 MPH wind gusts, hail and heavy rain,” PSEG-LI said in a statement Sunday morning. “Southampton, Hampton Bays, Riverhead and Port Jefferson Station are among the hardest hit municipalities,” the utility said.

“Consider any downed wire to be a live electric wire. Maintain a distance of at least 30 feet from a downed wire and do not drive over wires,” PSEG reminded people. Report a downed wire at 1-800-490-0075 or call 911. 

“Outside of the storm, it was really, really well-executed and clearly Jamesport, you know — there’s limited traffic patterns for people to leave, and they had those mapped out, and then with the downed trees, they rerouted people,” Halpin said Sunday morning.

Eyewitnesses reported being stuck in gridlock going to the event at South Jamesport Beach, as well as when leaving. The beach parking lot is accessible from Peconic Bay Boulevard. There are limited roads that connect the boulevard to Main Road in the eastern region of Riverhead Town, which contributed to the traffic jam after the show was over.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl, except as noted.

 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with addiitonal information since first published.