Trees Down, Power Up: Scarsdale Rebounds From Nor'easter

As shoppers strolled through a sunlit Village Center on Wednesday afternoon, the only visible evidence of last weekend's surprise Nor'easter were several slushy snow mounds scattered throughout the parking lot. If one listened closely, however, they could hear the faint rumbling of electricians' trucks and landscaping crews as workers sped across Scarsdale, restoring power to multiple households and collecting roadside tree debris for disposal at the local recycling center. 

Many residents shared that they'd never lost power, and that their less fortunate neighbors had regained electricity after less than 24 hours. They were more concerned, they said, with hazardous road and driveway conditions spurred by fallen trees -- and what the Village could possibly do to protect residents from downed power lines and branches if another snowstorm struck Scarsdale this fall. 

"On the other side of Post Road, you'll see a lot of big trees that fell," said a Department of Public Works worker as he busily collected branches and bundles of leaves with his crew near Sherwood Place. 

"We had several tree-sized limbs fall across our driveway," added Stacey Clarfield Newman, a Fox Meadow resident. "We were blocked in and hauling the trees out ourselves."

During the snowstorm, Newman had witnessed a snow-laden tree on her property inch closer and closer towards an adjacent power line until one of its limbs narrowly missed toppling the power line to the ground. 

"I think that the Village needs to look look critically at trees from now on. There's nothing that's going to stop a tree from splitting in half, but there are certain things that could have been done," Newman said.

"I think this [Nor'easter] is a sign of things to come instead of a freak storm… I think that between Irene and this storm, we're in for a rough winter and… the Village needs to take certain precautions… I think the Village should take a closer look at which trees are really impinging on the power lines or could be." 

Meanwhile, Monica Languor, 15, said that a fallen tree had caused an electrical fire in Secor Farms, and that an additional large tree had fallen on Tendell Road, where she once lived before moving to Crane Road. 

Although 190 Village residences are still without electricity, neither Languor nor Newman experienced any power outages despite a worker's assertion that his company, Macintosh Electric, had restored power to three houses in Scarsdale that afternoon. 

"We were lucky. The surrounding areas around our block were hit very hard," Newman said. 

 "I didn't lose power," Languor said. "But the people who live behind my house, around Popham Road and Church Lane -- they had no power. I think they just got it back today." 

And what about Halloween?

"The saddest part about the storm was that Halloween was cancelled!" Newman said. "I actually had about 25 kids come by my house, but by 7:30 p.m., there was nobody around. I had no idea that trick-o'-treating had been cancelled. When I heard that, I thought it was something like a bad 'Charlie Brown' scare." 

Ruth Bahar, however, did not let the storm get in the way of her grandchildrens' holiday. 

"On Halloween, they went trick-o'-treating," Bahar, 60, said. "We had a good time. Everything was good, and everything was normal." 

"Good" and "normal" -- exactly what the the Village is returning to as the caution tape is removed from power lines and houses regain light and warmth. Well, until the next storm, anyway...