Riverdale’s ONLY Locally Owned Newspaper!
Volume XVIII • Number 36 • September 1 - 7, 2011 •
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Armageddon, No; Annoying, Yes!
By BRENDAN McHUGH Tropical storm Irene blew through New York City Sunday morning, wreaking havoc throughout The Bronx. While the storm caused significantly less damage than in other parts of the city and suburbs fallen trees, flooding, mudslides and power outages were found throughout the borough. According to the Bronx borough president’s office, Riverdale was hit the hardest by power outages. “Con Ed can’t remove the trees until there is no power in the lines,” borough president spokesman John DeSio said Monday afternoon. “We have live wires. Con Ed can’t fix the power until the trees are removed. There are safety issues.” He said 1,933 households in The Bronx—the majority in Riverdale—were without power at the time, and many remain without power as we go to press. During the storm, nearly 10,000 Bronx households lost power. Riverdale, which had a tornado touch down about one year ago, now must deal again with a whirlwind of problems. Behind the houses that comprise the Villa Charlotte Bronte, a retaining wall collapsed, causing a mudslide onto the Metro-North railroad tracks. Residents of the co-op complex at 2501 Palisade Avenue seemed relaxed Monday afternoon as they congregated outside of their houses for the day. While the Metro-North has resumed regular service, residents of the Villa were still forced to stay out of their homes as construction crews worked on stabilizing the area. Retaining walls weren’t the only things to collapse due to the storm. Due in part to wind and perhaps exacerbated
by ground wet from the rainy summer, trees throughout The Bronx fell, tearing down telephone poles and destroying fences and cars. At a house near Independence Avenue and West 231st Street, two adjacent trees, each about five feet in diameter, fell within ten minutes of each other at around 1:30 a.m. The homeowner said he was lucky neither caused damage to his house, thanks to a branch that deflected one of the trees. The second tree, which snapped a telephone pole in half, came to rest on a vacant house across the street. The homeowner said he had difficulty reporting the problem. “I called 311, but they tell me to call 911, then they tell me to call 311,” he said with a laugh. Con Edison was on the scene Monday working to remove the trees. One employee said they hoped to restore power to the residents by Wednesday. Only a two blocks away, a tree in Seton Park was resting on the fence enclosing the tennis courts. Next to that, a different fence was the only thing keeping another tree from completely falling onto a telephone pole and then onto West 232nd Street. Across the street, John and Lisa Fruscella were watching the storm when they heard a loud noise at 4 a.m. “We hear the noise, and of course my wife is panicking,” John Fruscella said. “So I open the door, and there’s a forest right in front of me.” A large branch had fallen on their house, covering the front porch with leaves and branches. “I felt like Robin Hood in Sherwood
A tree is uprooted in Seton Park by the tennis courts.
Mudslide near the Spuyten Duyvil Station obliterated the tracks. Forest,” he said. in filing insurance claims in order to get The Fruscellas, who are trying to sell the most for what was lost,” state Senator their house, said that no real damage Adriano Espaillat said. was done. “Whether it is water damage from floodOn the other side of the Henry Hudson ing or structural damage from trees and deParkway, one Riverdale resident couldn’t bris, insurance is in place to ease the financial believe a tree had crushed the front end burden during the rebuilding process.” Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. apof his car. “I parked here because the tree looked plauded Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the proactive measures he took, recalling the sturdy,” Steven Gaeta said in disbelief. Along Cambridge Avenue, Gaeta’s mishandling of the snowstorm last year. windshield, hood and side-view mirror “This administration clearly learned were destroyed. Luckily, he said, the car from this past winter’s blizzard, and we are grateful to them for their strong response is a rental that his company pays for. “Hopefully, they have good insurance to Hurricane Irene. During the coming for me,” he added. days, my office will work with the Office Throughout the city, residents are still of Emergency Management and other picking up the pieces one by one. Local agencies, as well as Con Edison, to help elected officials are urging their constitu- Bronxites clean up in the aftermath of this storm,” Diaz said. “I urge all Bronxites to ents to call their offices for any help. “Being prepared for extreme weather is stay safe, be mindful of their surroundings important, but for those who lost property and not to hesitate to report storm-related in the storm, it is critical to act quickly issues to my office or 311.”