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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Neighborhood Awakes to Flooding and Broken Tree Limbs

By Patrick Hedlund and Serena Solomon

EAST VILLAGE — Residents awoke Sunday morning to downed trees and flooded buildings throughout the Lower East Side and East Village in the wake of Hurricane Irene’s tear through New York — although the area was mostly spared the serious damage officials feared could wreak havoc on the city.

While the aftermath appeared limited to torn tree limbs and soggy streets, some basements along Avenue C took on up to a foot of water from the early-morning deluge.

Alphabet City’s many community gardens also took a beating in the storm, with limbs ripped and scattered and some trees completely uprooted.

The La Plaza Cultural community garden on East Ninth Street and Avenue C saw some of the worst damage, with several trees included a 40-year-old willow and 60-year-old linden uprooted from the sprawling green space.

“We’ve never seen this before,” said Pedro Diez, 39, a board member for the garden who lives on East Ninth Street.

“It’s really sad.”

Closer to the East River, at the Masaryk Towers complex on Columbia Street, many tree limbs had either snapped or were hanging perilously in the heavily residential area.

"The misty rain the last few days has made the soil weak. The roots don't go down too deep," said Anthony Watkins, 52, a security guard for the 1,100-unit complex, who urged tenants to remain inside.

"These trees are still cracking and making noises.”

Police continued patrolling streets in the area Sunday afternoon, telling some residents to return home even though the storm had passed.

Still, locals slowly made their way outside as the wind and rain subsided, checking for damage and chatting with neighbors about the hurricane hysteria.

“It wasn’t as bad as they said it would be,” said William O’Shaughnessy, 43, who stayed in his East Ninth Street building Saturday even though it was in an evacuation zone.

Many basements along Avenue C took in water, but at the popular bar Porch on Avenue C near East Seventh Street, owner Ozzy Tezcan said the flooding was just a minor inconvenience.

“I’ve seen worse than this,” he said, adding he had nothing of value in the basement anyways. “It’s not bad at all.”

After keeping the bar closed all day Saturday, Tezcan said he hoped to reopen Porch on Sunday.

 “People get bored," he said. "They’ll probably come out."

Over on Avenue D — home to the sprawling Jacob Riis and Lillian Wald public housing complexes — some residents returned home from a night at the evacuation center on Grand Street.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen, so we left,” said Jahaira Gomez, 27, of the Riis Houses, who stayed overnight with her two daughters at the evacuation center at Seward Park High School on Grand Street.

“If I knew it was going to be this, I would have stayed home."

Gomez said the center — which volunteers estimated sheltered about 600 people during the storm — worked out well for her family, but that it was noisy and hot all night.

Others were in no rush to return home following the storm, saying they actually enjoyed their time at the evacuation center.

"I met new friends, hung out. It felt like a vacation," said Riis Houses tenant Jenny Reis, 47. "My mother doesn't want to leave. She wants to eat lunch first.”

While public housing tenants returned home Sunday afternoon, some services including elevators had not yet resumed.

Freddy Matos, 33, who lives in a seventh-floor apartment in Wald Houses, said residents in his building pitched in to help elderly or disabled tenants stuck on high floors, since many defied the evacuation order.

“Practically the whole building is still there,” Matos said.

Farther west, on Avenue A, residents began filling the streets about noon as the clouds moved out and the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. A line snaked out the door at Mud Coffee on East Ninth Street for locals to get their caffeine fix, and diners already filled the outdoor café at Plum Pizzeria on Second Avenue.