Storm Blog

Janet Gorman, who lives on Susan Court in White Plains, behind Archbishop
Stepinac High School, said several trees in one part of her backyard were
all cut down, making her think the storm was another tornado.

“The trees were just sheered off, one huge one and three smaller ones, all
in the same spot,” she said. “How do they decide if it was a tornado?”

“Not that I am a tornado or hurricane expert,� Harrison police Lt. Larry Marshall said, “but I would say we have a low grade tornado.�

“It had to be a tornado. It took everything out,� said Nina Shreve of Hunting Ridge Road in White Plains.

This morning all White Plains residents faced tough problems based on the storm last night. I live off Rosedale Ave and the street was blocked due to down trees, which would not allow anyone to get to Mamaroneck Ave. We also had down trees on the upper part of North Street. The only way out of the Rosedale section was to head south on North Street.

They had a White Plains police officer there at the bottom of the hill preventing cars from heading north on North Street. I was taking my son to work (camp counselor) and asked this officer if I would be able to get back to Rosedale Ave. He said “no� and pointed to the
Hutch, to which I replied I cannot get home from there as Rosedale is blocked off Mamaroneck Ave. The only way home is back on Rosedale, the way I just came.

I asked how am I to get home to which he replied “I don’t know, not my problem.� He was courteous but I could not accept this as being logical.

Needless to say I turned around, went home with my son and he missed a day of work based on the stupidity of someone in the White Plains Police Department. Who made this call? What was their logic? I was a prisoner in my own neighborhood. Many of my neighbors had the same experience.

Just a suggestion to the WP Police. Maybe next time ask the local residents for identification and you’ll eliminate many questions and ill feelings from the community as to proper judgment.

— Steve Iasillo, White Plains

Air travelers and train riders fared far better this morning, with only scattered 5- to 10-minute delays reported by Metro-North Railroad, and on-time departures at Westchester County Airport.

As of 1 p.m., the following state roads remain closed:

— Hutchinson River Parkway’s Exit 25 at North Street
— Route 127, North Street, between Ridgeway and Maplemoor Road
— Route 100, Central Avenue, at the intersection of East Hartsdale and West Hartsdale avenues, to Underhill Avenue

White Plains police say they hope to reopen Bryant Avenue by 3 p.m.

Clean up from last week’s tornado also will keep one lane closed in each direction on these roads all week:
— Saw Mill River Parkway near Exit 25
— Route 9A, between routes 100C and 141

It took me 2 hours to get to work from LARCHMONT!!!! With all the trees down. I was NOT in a good mood when I finally got to work…

My mistake was seeing that the Hutch north was backed up so I got off to try all the back roads…and instead all the roads were blocked. I finally had to get on 684 north and pull an illegal U-ey to get to the lovely Corporate park Drive.

— Jeanne Muchnick, senior editor, the InTown magazine network

I tried about a gazillion ways to get to work this morning. I felt like I was going through a maze. I kept having to backtrack and try another route.It seemed half the streets in Scarsdale were closed off on one block or another.

— Ted Mann, of Hartsdale, of Journal News custom publications.

I live in the Hartsdale area (south of the four corners on Route 100 that was closed off). Cablevision service is down.
On calling Cablevision they indicated that services will be back up in the next 4-5 hours today.

— Jessie Araujo

What an unbelievable commute from New City! Over 2 1/2 hours on the road! So many trees and power lines down, traffic every where you looked! Once I arrived at the Westchester Avenue exit (on 287) my troubles really began.

Let’s see: detours at Bryant, North Street, and through many residential areas that I am not familiar with. Eventually found the Hutch exit heading northbound and pulled into a gas station with no electricity and all of the gas pumps were closed! Finally arrived at the
office at approximately 10 a.m. and left New City at 7:30. A very exhausting commute!

— Ken Ahearn, Account Executive-Education & Health Advertising

Arts writer Georgette Gouveia had quite the commute:

It took me an hour to get to White Plains – from White Plains, usually a 15-minute commute.

After zigzaging around Bryant Avenue, a place, it seems, where trees always go to die, I headed down Mamaroneck Avenue, where the
property of Archbishop Stepinac High School looked like Twelve Oaks after the Civil War in “Gone With The Wind.” I then headed down Ridgeway, which gave me plenty of time to sing along with a recording of Bach’s Cantata 51.

Indeed, it seemed as if I had enough time to listen to the entire Bach canon of works.

Finally, I got to North Street and Bryant Avenue, only to be told by a cop that I would have to circle around 287, which was jammed, as Westchester Avenue westbound was closed.

So I took a chance on Anderson Hill Road and Purchase Street to Westchester Avenue east. What I really loved were the Purchase patriarchs, sitting in their golf carts watching the slow parade of working folk. They must love the smell of wood chips in the morning.

Education reporter Diana Bellettieri had quite a night Tuesday:

Like two idiots, my fiancé and I went out in the storm last night to return some bridal shower gifts to Bed, Bath & Beyond in Yorktown Heights. There was only a slight drizzle when we left our house in Katonah at about 7:30 p.m. By the time we hit Route 35, however, marble-sized hail balls were bombarding my brand-new Volkswagen Passat!

Not wanting to damage my new car, I pulled off to the side of the road to seek protection under a tree. But then we thought, “This isn’t smart! What if a tornado sweeps through here and brings this tree crashing down on the car! We could die!” So I pulled back onto the road, determined to get the bridal shower gifts out of my back seat and the refund money in my pocket.

We eventually made it to BB&B, where the storm had already passed. On the way home, I somehow missed a turn as I was fidgeting with my iPod. Fate led us to turn around in the parking lot of a German restaurant on Route 118 called Jennifer’s. I say “fate” because literally the night before my fiancé and I were watching a travel program on TV and I said that we needed to find a good German restaurant near us. Well, we found one.

But we ignored fate and decided to head back to Katonah for dinner. (I had made a great bolognese sauce over the weekend and we were looking forward to eating it. Plus, we’re kinda cheap and didn’t really want to spend the money we had just pocketed by returning some extra sheets and wine glasses.)

When we finally got back to Katonah, we found that the power was out. We called NYSEG and learned that power wouldn’t be back up until 7 a.m. So guess what we decided to do? (After giving a quick call about the power-outage to the newsroom of The Journal News, of course!) We actually headed back to the German restaurant. But by the time we got there, it was closed. (What were we thinking? Why would a tiny German restaurant be open at 9 p.m. on a Tuesday?)

So we headed up into Yorktown, and found a great Irish restaurant called Murphy’s. I was tempted to get the Sheppard’s Pie, but it was too late at night for such a rich meal. Instead, I got a salad. Boring, I know. But I do have to fit into a wedding dress in a few months….