Nor’easter floods LI coast: Ferries suspended as locals brave storm

So Francis, we're still in Bayshore and let's talk about the bus driving through the flooding. Let's get to that one right now. You're seeing it for yourself. This is a party bus. This is no ordinary school bus. This isn't even an SUV. This is a large party bus navigating through the flooded road here on Maple Avenue. And now that bus, I am told, is going to get at the end of Maple Avenue. I'm told there will be a wedding today in this more Easter. Way to go bride and groom. Amazing. I wish them so much luck and I hope everyone gets there safely. We're keeping an eye on that. This morning, as you said, we were under an overhang at the Fire Island Ferry Terminal just behind me and then we were outside showing you how the water was coming up through the storm drains. And then at one point, like you mentioned, it was coming over the dock from both ends. We've since, in this past hour, have been inching our way up from the terminal to here because we're trying to get ahead of the flooding. This is one of the low-lying communities on Long Island here in Bayshore. It's in the town of Islip. It's east of the city. We've literally been inching our way up the road because the water is following us. And this is what you're looking at. It's not a storm drain backing up. This is coastal flooding. This is a coastal community along the Great South Bay and the water is creeping farther inland. I was at the end this morning before I started and I was right up against the dock with the ducks. And now those ducks, well, I can't even tell you how they're doing right now because I can't get there. But hopefully once the tide recedes, we'll be able to do that. It's noticeably worse though, Frances. That's the message. It's much worse than it was even an hour ago. I think we have some video. We showed you the party bus, but let's see if we could pull up some video of Kismet on Fire Island. Frances, do we have that? Yes, there is video right now of a truck with its lights on as someone is setting up road closures. It's kind of hard to hear you, Jodi, because you can hear how strong that wind is. Okay, I'll try to hold the microphone closer to my face. How's this? Is this a little bit better? Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Okay, I'll hold it closer to my mouth and we'll switch to a different microphone as soon as we're done. Or Jimmy, we could even do that right now so we could keep talking and bring you the latest. The video you saw was a town official, an employee with the town rather. He was putting up a gate to actually block the road. You could see these barriers up here now. I don't know if you have my picture, but they're blocking the road now so cars can't get through. You have a bunch of them coming down here to check it out and they're quickly turning around because of obviously the flooding. We also had a video of Kismet, the dock on Fire Island, and that's a perfect example of why, whoop, it's one of those hold your hat days, why you can't have ferry service right now. That dock obviously can't have a ferry pull up to it with people going on and off. Clearly not the day for it. We also spoke this morning to Supervisor Angie Carpenter with the Town of Islip. We spoke with Dave Anderson, the General Manager of Fire Island Ferries. I think we have some sound. Angie Carpenter in the town also oversees MacArthur Airport within the Town of Islip. Let's see if we can play you some of that sound and then we'll come back to us on camera. In the meantime, I will change my microphone. Do we have that to play? Yes, let's play the sound and let you change your microphone. We appreciate you guys adapting and working with us. You know, earlier with Kelly Kennedy, we actually had some issues with the service as well and she had to come live to us on the Zoom, but then we were able to get her live on a camera. So as we are watching Jodi Goldberg, seeing her live out there, she's changing her microphone. I think we are going to play some of the interviews she got earlier for us this morning. She talked to so many people. I felt like every time we came out to her live, she had someone else ready for us. Really appreciate that, especially at this hour because it really gives us perspective of how people are impacted, what officials are looking to do. Let's see if we can play some of that interview right now. We've got Dave Anderson, General Manager of the Ferries with me this morning. He was here checking things out. He says it's very rare service is suspended. What made you make the call? Well, the unpredictability of the storm for one thing. We've never made a decision. We have a regret. It was a right call to make and as you can tell by some of your footage there, that the tide is extremely high. The wind is not so much an issue as it is if we try to run getting people on and off the ferry itself becomes a safety hazard. Try taking that big step onto the boat and God forbid watching someone misstep there. Not what we want to see. What is it? You said this wouldn't happen during the summer. He said this isn't something that would happen during the summer. It's the fall. Is it the high tide? Is it the full moon? Yeah, I mean, the full moon has a lot to play into this. It's time of day, time of year, wind direction and wind speed plays a lot into it. And so when can people expect the ferry service to resume? It's out today. It's out tomorrow. Well, we're going to make that decision a little bit later on. We're going to review everything and see what's going on with the forecast models. We're hoping we should be running by tomorrow afternoon. Joining us today, coming out, braving these elements. You know, this isn't something unusual, especially for a South Shore community like the town of Islip and here in Bayshore. But what are your concerns today? Well, we obviously are concerned. We have spots across the town that are traditionally flooded, but we're doing all right. We're holding our own. I'm looking behind us here at the ferry terminal. In fact, I was talking to Dave and said, you remember Sandy? And he said, remember, well, where was the water? It was up to the windows. So we're not Sandy. You know, we're going to be fine. And I would just ask everyone to be patient. You know, they have to have reasonable expectations. We were out there doing prep work for two days before the storm, making sure all the drains were clear that they could take on as much water as possible. But there's nowhere for the water to go. The pumps can just pump so much and the drains can hold just so much. But when the drains start spilling over higher than the water that's coming in, there's nothing much you can do, especially with a weather event like this. We've been speaking all along about it being kind of this long haul. We're in it for a while now. Like Supervisor Ferretti said, if you couldn't hear him, he said 24 to 30 hours of this. We've got to wait. Angie Carpenter is also overseeing MacArthur Airport in the town of Islip. What could people know when it comes to flying? Are people getting out? Are there arrivals? What's going on? It feels windy. What should people know before they travel? They are open. The airport is open. And I would just urge everyone to please call their carrier to check to make sure that they are going out and they are, you know, what the timing is. But there are delays, obviously. But right now the airport is open. Anderson is with Fire Island Ferries. Dave, I'm going to grab you for a very quick second. Dave has been speaking to many different people here in the town of Islip to just decide what's going on as far as the ferries running again. We had we discussed earlier today how, you know, it suspending ferry, you know, ferry, suspending the ferry. Hey, Jodi, I think we're going to come back out to you live if you can hear us. Yes, we're ready. How do I sound on this new mic? Yes, you sound great. Thank you. And good to know everyone. I'm hearing from Dave. Yeah, we see the cars driving behind you turning around. I want to ask you, Jodi, you know, as a reporter, oftentimes you're given the conditions, you're given the forecast, you go out with a certain expectation. We think we know what we're going to see, how people are going to react. But sometimes things may pan out that way or people may surprise us. Has anyone's reaction to the storm surprised you at all? I know probably everyone you spoke with mentioned Sandy and kind of saying, you know, it's all relative. We're prepared for something like this because we've gone through something like Sandy. No one's reactions are that out of the ordinary at this point. Right now, we're on the south shore of Long Island. Everyone here pretty much, as you said, knows what we're dealing with here. It's not like Sandy. It's just another flood, wind, rain event. And so they've experienced this before. They know what to expect. And as far as, you know, even myself and my photographer, Jimmy McLaughlin, we know what this is like. We know as the high tide comes in, we should expect to move up the road. It would be, you know, it would be a weaker storm if we were still back there. And so this is what, you know, Audrey has been saying. This is what everyone, our whole team has been saying this whole time. The high tide is going to bring some flooding. And so lo and behold, the high tide is bringing some flooding out of the shot right here. You have some people just taking a look. They're my wave watchers just coming to see what's going on. And obviously, right now, we have a break in the rain, and so it's a little bit safer. But on a day like today with these high wind gusts, you want to be careful. You don't want to be under the trees. You want to just be inside where it's safe. This wetting later on today will be interesting to see how it happens. I hope the water recedes. But Dave Anderson also said, depending on how this tide we're experiencing right now recedes will really dictate what happens later on in the day with the later tide. And so that's interesting. A few things, Francis, I want to point out to you. We have MacArthur Airport. There are flights coming in and out of there in that local airport here on Long Island. And right now at this point with PSUG Long Island, the local power company, there are just over 15,000 outages. Not a bad number, all things considering. But there are people, obviously, if you're one of them and you have your power out, you don't want to be like that. I saw something on Facebook this morning. I mean, I guess the good news is it's not that hot. It's not that cold. But you do obviously want to have your power. And so there are people, you know, stopping by, coming to see what we're doing. We're looking to see what they're doing, just trying to be safe out here during this storm to weather it out. Yeah, we're definitely going to weather it out together. It sounds so great to hear that people are not surprised. People are not panicking. People feel prepared. That's why we do what we do, right, to help people get their information and make plans accordingly. Devastating, though, to hear about the wetting adjustments. But hopefully that can still happen. Everything can just move inside. We know you'll keep us updated on that. Everyone's invested in that bride and groom. So, Jodi, thank you so much for all your work this morning. We know you'll keep us updated throughout the day as things change. Thanks, Jodi. Sure will. And little do they know, they have a lot of fans. Yes, rooting for love. All right, we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to reset and check back in with Kelly Kennedy after this break. She is further down south at the Jersey Shore, another area where this coastal flooding is a major concern. We'll check in with her after this break. You're watching Newsroom Live. Thanks for being with us. We'll be right back.