LOWER EAST SIDE — Work crews began clearing out downed trees a day after Hurricane Irene swept through the city, scattering limbs and ripping roots from the ground near the East River.
The storm struck some green spaces along the FDR Drive particularly hard, tearing trees from soil near the dense collection of cooperative buildings and public housing complexes in the area.
Crews contracted by the city Parks Department were busy Monday morning removing fallen trees at Corlears Hook Park on Cherry Street, which suffered some of the worst damage from Sunday’s early-morning storm.
A worker at the scene — where cranes were used to lift large limbs and other debris from the park — said the hurricane ripped through a series of old elms that have become harder to find in the city.
He added that his crew next planned to respond to fallen trees in Seward, Tompkins Square and Washington Square parks.
Just around the corner from Corlears Hook, workers sawed through trunks and limbs left over after the storm downed trees at the East River Co-op complex on Grand Street.
“This is terrible,” said co-op resident Beverly DuBrino, 63, looking at the wood and branches piled up outside the entrance to her building. “If the tree would have [fallen] the other way, it would have gone through my mother’s window.”
Despite the hurricane causing less damage than originally feared, she said the city’s decision to take such precautions proved a smart move.
“I think the city did a good job and we were really prepared,” DuBrino added.
Other parks with tree damage remained closed Monday morning, including Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, where a tangle of trees sat fallen across the popular green space’s East Ninth Street traverse.
A block east of the park, on Avenue C, much of the flooding that forced workers to pump water from their waterlogged basements a day earlier had completely subsided.
A residential building near East Seventh Street that had knee-deep water less than 24 hours earlier was almost fully dried by Monday.
“Thank God nothing happened,” said Wilfredo Caquias, 62, who spent Sunday clearing water from the building’s basement. “So far, so good. It’s a beautiful day today.”
The damage even provided a silver lining for some, like East River Co-Op resident Barbara McClung, who picked up a few pieces of tree wood a worker sawed off for her.
“I’m a science teacher,” she said, holding up slices of trunk. “I’m going to use it when we study trees.”
