The Run Around of Damage

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Meir Pliskin and Zelig Shaul

Hurricane Irene’s cost to insurers may have fallen to an estimated $3 billion in the U.S. as the storm weakened on its path toward New England, according to Kinetic Analysis Corp., a firm that predicts the effects of disasters.

An earlier estimate was for insured losses of as much as $14 billion.

New York City was spared severe damage, and the worst of the storm had passed as of about 10 a.m. local time Sunday.

Across the state, 370,000 people were without power as of 10:30 a.m., Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office said.

In Crown Heights, which was not under any emergency alert, strong winds have caused large logs and branches of trees to fall on cars, streets and porches.

One such damage occured in the entrance and front yard of Avrohom and Miriam Gopin’s home on Montgomery Street.

A tree fell on his brick and metal gate at around 1:00 AM on Sunday as rain came gushing down and thunder was heard throughout the neighborhood.

With 10 children and more grandchildren, Avrohom said he was thankful to Hashem that no one got hurt. A family member walked through the entrance a short while earlier.

“It was b’chesed u’brachamim,” he said. “Baruch Hashem, no one was hurt.”

Notifying the authorities about the fall proved to be a tedious and draining process.

“We called 311 who sent us to 911 who sent us back to 311, over and over,” one family member told COLlive.com.

“It was like after 9/11 when the agencies were not sharing information. Each said it was the other’s responsibility. We ended up putting a representative of 311 and 911 on a conference call which turned into a heated argument, so I hung up.

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation ended up taking responsibility.

Neighbors told COLlive.com they have been asking the city to remove the dead tree whose branches began to shrivel.

“But they said it was too expensive to cut down,” one noted. “Now they have no choice – and not to mention the harm it could have caused.”