Della Hasselle, Oliva Scheck and Heather Grossmann
DNAinfo Staff
PENN STATION — LIRR service from Penn Station to and from Jamaica was restored in time for the Friday morning rush, after a flash storm caused severe delays and cancellations Thursday night.
Severice was disrupted Thursday after a violent storm devastated areas of the city, killing one woman and downing trees and power lines.
The LIRR suspended service on all of its lines originating from Penn Station after trees were uprooted and debris scattered across tracks at a number of stations during the start of the evening rush.
Trees on the tracks at the LIRR's Woodside station in Queens halted Jamaica-bound train service on the LIRR, while trees down at Bayside and Glen Street stopped service from Manhattan to Port Washington and Oyster Bay, according to a LIRR spokesman.
Partial service was restored on the Port Washington line Friday morning, as workers continued an all-night effort to clear fallen trees and repair the damaged tracks, a spokesman said. Customers were advised to use the main line, Oyster Bay or Hempstead branches. NYC Transit is honoring LIRR tickets on its No. 7 subway at Woodside and Flushing-Main Street.
Service between Penn Station and Jamaica was restored around 4:45 a.m., though cancelations and delays were still possible, the LIRR spokesman said.
The city has suspended alternate side parking rules Friday to help expedite the storm clean up.
The violent storm led to the death of 30-year-old Iline Leuakis, of Pennsylvania. Leuakis died Thursday when a tree fell onto her Lexus sedan about 6:50 p.m. near the intersection of Grand Central Parkway and Jewel Avenue in Queens, the NYPD said. Her husband was also in the car and survived the incident with minor injuries, police said.
Con Edison reported that over 25,000 people were still without power through out the city Friday morning, though only one of the outages was in Manhattan.
Meteorologists believe the storm may have included a tornado with 100 mph winds. A spokesman from the Office of Emergency Management said that the city had not been prepared for the storm because the bad weather was expected to bypass New York City and head straight to New Jersey.
Stranded New Jersey commuters also packed Penn Station Thursday evening as they dealt with delays of 20 to 30 minutes on some NJ Transit trains due to a combination of downed trees and electrical problems.
The subway system was also affected by the weather. Severice on the 7 train was temporarily suspended between Times Square and Queens, but resumed with delays at 8:30 p.m. The M train was suspended between Myrtle-Wycoff Avenue and Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue stations in both directions. There were also long delays on the L line.
As would-be commuters grew more and more angry about the service stoppage, transit officials and representatives pulled open a gate at Penn Station to separate themselves from the crowds.
Keith Nusblatt, 22, who was traveling with his dad back to their home in Dix Hills, did not approve of the tactic.
"Putting a big gate up like that. I don't know, it's kind of like keeping animals in a zoo," he said.
Inez Neilak, 57, was stuck at Penn Sation after her 5:53 p.m. train to Bethpage, Long Island, was delayed.
"I have no back-up plan if I can't get on the train," Neilak said. "There's always something going on. Why can't they just move the trees?"
Carrie Neilsen, 30, was trying to get to the Huntington station on the LIRR.
"I'm starting to get panicky," Neilsen said, adding that she thought the railroad did a bad job of communicating with customers when there were service interruptions.
"I mean, they make 10,000 announcements that there's no service," she said. "Give me an idea of when it will be back. Or give me some idea of how to get out of the city. Something!"
Aaron Apern, 38, a advertising copy writer who lives in Long Beach, said he was surprised to see that all the lines had been shut down.
"It makes you wonder how many trees are down and what the extent of the damage is," he said.
