For Immediate Release                                                                                        Media Contacts: Collin Nash and Sid Nathan
June 30, 2010                                                                                                      (516) 869-7794

North Hempstead's Coordinated Response to the Great Neck Early-Summer Storm of 2010
GN Resident: Crisis response the “highlight of my 7.5 years in living in Great Neck”

Great Neck, NY—In the wake of the recent storm that struck the Great Neck peninsula, Supervisor Jon Kaiman announced today that working together with local villages, police, fire and power authority led to a timely and well-executed crisis response effort.  The Town of North Hempstead worked with the Great Neck villages, Nassau County Office of Emergency management, police, fire service and power authority throughout the aftermath of the storm to restore power and to clear fallen trees, branches and other debris caused by the storm.

“Our community was hit with tornado like winds that caused great damage to homes, trees and utility wires.  The county, town, village, fire service, police and power authority have worked through the night to clear the roads and wires and restore power," said Supervisor Kaiman the morning after the storm. "Our chief concern is and will always be the safety of all our residents. As always our residents can contact our 311 call center to report any non-emergency incidents as a result of the storm."

North Hempstead residents weighed-in on the coordinated response effort to the severe storm.

“The maintenance crews of the Town of North Hempstead and Village of Great Neck in the way they dealt with this disaster were the high light on my 7.5 years living in Great Neck area,” said Boris M. Twersky, resident of Great Neck. “These gentlemen came late in the evening after the long and hard day of work in this exhaustive heat and did their work in highly professional way.  All their actions were well coordinated and they displayed a really caring effort to minimize damage to my property.”

Great Neck Resident Robert Gordon commented, “In other places I suspect it would have taken months, to get the roads cleared and power restored.  We are fortunate to have leaders like Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman and Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman who marshaled the forces and resources necessary to deal with this calamity”

North Hempstead officials have calculated that the 311 call center responded to over 1000 calls from residents in the first two days of the storm. Furthermore, officials have reported that over 1,100 tons of storm related debris was collected and transported to the Town's transfer station.

For more information on the aftermath of the storm and the Town’s response, please call 311 or check out North Hempstead's Coordinated Response webpage.