Even though Hurricane Sandy has not officially struck Long Island, it has already started creating chaos in the Nassau County Long Island.
According to Newsday, the Long Island Power Authority announced that over 21,000 customers were without power on Long Island as of Monday at 11:45 a.m EDT.
Close to 1,500 workers were dispatched to work on repairing power lines. LIPA is looking to add another 700 off-island workers to move the process along, but are facing competition from other utilizes in other locations. In Freeport, there was some intense flooding around the Guy Lombardo Avenue and the Nautical Mile. Long Beach and the South Shore also experienced a great deal of flooding and were under a mandatory evacuation notice.
Latinospost's own reporter David Salazar traveled around the local East Meadow, Merrick, Bellmore and Baldwin area to survey the area to see any of the impact that the Hurricane has already had on the local towns. The wind was clearly a lot strong than usually, but the roads and traffic seemed rather normal despite the news of the impending hurricane. A great deal of small business put tape over their store front windows while other businesses boarded up their windows to avoid broken glass. The local Walmart in East Meadow on Hempstead Turnpike was completely boarded around and a shopping cart holder in the parking lot was knocked over.
The train stations were all closed as the MTA shut down its services last night. Local libraries and schools were all closed though some small businesses and large businesses were open for business.
Aside from that, there was not much debris noticeable on Sunrise Highway save for a few street signs knocked over from the wind.
Live Coverage & Updates: Hurricane Sandy 2012