Long Island residents still cleaning up after flooding; senators call for emergency declaration
STONY BROOK, Long Island (WABC) -- Senators from New York are calling on President Joe Biden to declare a disaster emergency for Suffolk County, Long Island after homes were damaged and roads washed away by flooding from dangerous storms over the weekend.
Eyewitness News reporter Chantee Lans returned to Stony Brook on Wednesday and spoke with homeowners about how they are managing following the storms.
"Oh my god. Look at my son, my family, I got something back," homeowner Ron Borgese said, as he looked through family photos recovered after the storm.
He says something is better than nothing.
"You hear a lot of people say, 'I'm blessed.' Yeah I am," he said.
His Stony Brook home was left in shambles. His backyard, where he and his wife got married one month ago, is gone.
"We were sleeping in our area that just got torn away," Borgese said. "I don't know what to say, if the dog didn't wake us up, I guess Snowy is the hero."
Nearby, Mill Creek Road buckled early Monday morning from rushing water from Mill Pond. The pond, which was once pristine, is now empty.
The force of the water destroyed everything in its path.
Ring camera video captured Borgese's wife Wee, walking outside during the storm.
That same ground washed away just 10 minutes later.
"I think we're dead. I don't really think we're dead, I kind of know we're dead," Borgese said. "There's no question, look what's in the water. A huge section almost half a house, and that's a pretty big house."
Mill Creek Road collapsed behind Borgese's house. There's another collapsed road where homeowners can't drive out.
"The water was coming up here and it went to the three-foot line that I have for the crawl space," homeowner Jennifer Steinberg said.
Steinberg and six other neighboring homeowners have not moved their vehicles since Sunday night because they can't. Half of the road leading to their homes has been washed away.
"About maybe 3, 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning, I heard a banging on the door, and it was the fire department telling me don't go out of your house," said homeowner Daniel Kinney.
"It's scary, how long it's going to take, and I'm disabled," Steinberg said. "I'm someone who falls a lot so emergency services are always a concern for me."
Head of the Harbor Village Mayor Micheal Utevsky walked along the damaged road.
"Nature is indomitable. It's going to get us all in the end," he said.
Senator Mario Mattera wants state and federal funding.
"When you have a tragedy like this and roadways are gone, we can get the army corps of engineers to come here so this way we can get this reconstructed so we can get everybody back to normal again," he said.
Twenty-three homes were determined to have major damage, and so far, 1,700 different homes reported some sort of damage on Suffolk County's website.
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