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Top Stories 2012: Hurricane Sandy Hits Yonkers

YONKERS, N.Y . – As the end of 2012 nears, The Yonkers Daily Voice is taking a look back at some of the year's biggest stories.

Aijaz Ahmed drags broken tree limbs from the road in front of his Yonkers home on Hillcrest Avenue in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Aijaz Ahmed drags broken tree limbs from the road in front of his Yonkers home on Hillcrest Avenue in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Photo Credit: Matt Bultman

When Hurricane Sandy swept into Yonkers on Oct. 29, it brought with it pounding rain and devastating winds.

At the height of the storm, gusts reached 80 miles per hour, knocking down an estimated 400 trees and blocking countless roads throughout the city. 

State police said one Yonkers resident was killed when his car struck a tree that had fallen across the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh.

More than 21,000 residents lost power as well, the largest outage in the city’s history.  Restoration efforts were slow, frustrating both officials and residents. It wasn’t until nearly two weeks later that power was fully restored throughout the city.

Yonkers Public Schools were closed for five consecutive days during and after the storm due to a lack of power and a dangerous road conditions. 

Hurricane Sandy even put Halloween on hold as city officials issued a curfew and urged parents to celebrate the holiday later in the week when the dangerous road conditions had been cleared.

Sandy’s storm surge that devastated parts of New York City and much of the east coast didn’t leave Yonkers unscathed either. Dozens of residents fled their waterfront homes before the storm in anticipation of rising flood waters and power outages.

Eventually, the storm surge reached five feet in some places, leaving a handful of high-rise buildings, including Scrimshaw House and 1 Pier Pointe, with at least two feet of water in the lobby.  

The Yonkers Riverfront Library and Board of Education building at 1 Larkin Plaza was also flooded. It remained closed for a couple days while crews pumped out the basement.

In all, city officials have estimated Sandy could wind up costing the city millions in cleanup and recovery.

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