Rain total tops 5 inches from Long Island storm; No serious damage

A powerful two-day storm, which dumped more than five inches of rain across parts of Long Island and buffeted the region with winds near 60 mph, had moved on by Monday afternoon without causing any serious damage or injuries, authorities said.

The storm, which began midday Sunday, caused some minor flooding issues Monday morning on Jericho Turnpike near Elwood Road in Huntington, on the northbound Sagtikos State Parkway at Crooked Hill Road and in Queens on the Long Island and Van Wyck expressways, officials said.

But Tuesday, Long Islanders will get a chance to dry out.

“Tomorrow is going to be mostly sunny,” said Jim Connolly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton. “A little bit of a southwesterly breeze around 10-15 miles per hour and a bit cooler with a high in the low to mid-40s.”

There is no rain in the forecast, Connolly said, until Sunday night at the earliest.

By midday Monday, flooding from the weekend storm had receded on all area roadways, law enforcement officials said.

A high-wind warning for the area expired earlier Monday while a flood watch ended in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Upton.

Fort Salonga in Suffolk County registered just over five inches of rain — the most of any area on Long Island — while North Massapequa in Nassau reported 4.85 inches, the weather service said.

And the 1.5 inches of rain that fell in Islip on Sunday broke the record for that date, Connolly said.

Shoreham in Suffolk registered the highest gusts during the storm — 57 mph early Monday morning. The North Shore village of Bayville, at 47 mph on Sunday night, notched the strongest gusts in Nassau County, according to the weather service.

At one point Sunday night, nearly 800 PSEG Long Island customers were without power from 34 outages.

That number, however, was down to 35 customers from two outages by 9:45 p.m. Monday, according to the utility's outage map.

The Nassau and Suffolk police departments had no reports of widespread flooding, wind damage or crashes due to the storm. There were scattered reports of trees down, including in Centereach.

Long Island Rail Road trains were operating as normal by Monday afternoon although LaGuardia Airport was reporting 90-minute arrival delays due to the high winds. 

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.