Village: Sandy Cleanup Moving Well

Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy the Village of Lindenhurst continues to move ahead with post-storm cleanup.

Cleanup Progress
The Village's focus has been removing the debris and destruction caused by Sandy's wrath and record-high flood waters that took out homes South of Montauk Highway and breached Montauk Highway in numerous places at its height on October 29.

"We were slowed down for a day, day and a half, last week, but we're back to getting rid of the vast bulk of the debris in the Village," Village Administrator Shawn Cullinane told Lindenhurst Patch.

The slowdown had to do with the second storm in as many weeks - a Noreaster - that hit Long Island last Wednesday, bringing more coastal flooding to the already ravaged residential South of Monutak streets in Lindy.

But once the tides receded it was back to work for the Village's Department of Public Works.

"We've also hired four different contractors to pick up the debris and place it in dumpsters," Cullinane said. And Mayor Tom Brennan told Patch last week Patchogue Village Mayor Paul Pontieri was sending a crew to help ahead of the Noreaster.

"The outpouring from everyone has been amazing, and I'm not turning down any help. OLPH Church is also bringing us some generators through Catholic Charities," Brennan also said last week.

As a result of the extra contractors and help, Cullinane said yesterday the cleanup is moving along "very well," and the Village is considering going with two of the four contractors for the post-Sandy cleanup in the days ahead.

"The volume of debris has dropped since the initial storm," he explained.

Cleanup Phases
Cullinane said there are several phases of cleanup, and the Village is heading into the second and third phases now, as residents are starting to get into their homes and salavge what they can and rip and throw out what they can't.

"We've got a good handle on the debris removal now, and we'll continue to keep going till we get it all done," he said.

The Village is separating the trees, brush and logs (vegetative debris) from the construction and demolition (C&D) debris, and that's not only to be environmentally responsible, but also to be cost-effective and more efficient.

"The vegetative debris is more recyclable while the C&D debris will be sorted through for metals, paper, etc., and then much of that will be burned," Cullinane said.

In fact Babylon Town officials also said two weeks ago the Department of Environmental Conservation gave the Town the green light to burn debris at the Town's Wasts recycling Center in West Babylon. And, as of October 31, two days after Sandy, a 1,000 tons of debris were already burned.

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