MARCH MADNESS: A storm hit the South Shore over the weekend, packing 70 mph winds and wreaking havoc on trees, power lines and homes. In photo, crews try to clean up mess on Third Avenue, Massapequa Park, where tree uprooted during the storm, fell on a truck, taking down a transformer and causing major damage. See page 14 for story and more photos. Photo by Joe Turner A mid-March storm, with winds of more than 70 miles per hour, struck the South Shore of Long Island on Saturday, taking down trees and utility lines, toppling poles and causing major flooding. In Amityville, Babylon, West Islip, Bay Shore, Lindenhurst, Massapequa and Massapequa Park, Town and Village crews were out in the thick of it, along with local fire departments and police.

“I heard the hail at about 11 a.m., and wondered what was happening, said Scott Verity, of Massapequa, a HAM operator and weather spotter for the National Weather Service. “When I finally went outside and measured them, (the hail) they were a centimeter across.”

Photos by Scott Verity Verity, as well as local officials, firefightersand police, said the ferocity of the storm caught everyone by surprise.

We had some knowledge of it, but there is still some question as to whether we are calling it a nor’ easter,”

said Verity.

Others said the best word for it is a “surprise.”

“We expected a lot of wind and rain, but we’ve been through that before,” said Amityville Village Mayor Peter T. Imbert. “This was beyond what

everyone thought was coming.”

Mayor James Altadonna called it “horrific,” and

said that the only good thing about the storm was the

response of police, firefighters, rescue and highway workers and others who worked for two days to ensure the safety of the public.

“Everyone worked together and while we had a lot of damage to homes and trees, we had no loss of life,” Altadonna said. “We are going door to door to make sure all of our residents are ok and it has been a wonderful team effort; I can’t commend those who were out there more.”

In Massapequa Park, which has approximately 6,000 homes, about 2,500 were without power at the peak of the storm. Most have been restored and Altadonna said that any resident who requires assistance in getting their electricity restored or other matters should call Village Hall at 516-798-0244.

Massapequa Fire Chief Tom Fitzsimmons said his department's volunteers responded to approximately 500 calls between Saturday and Sunday, most of them related to wires being down and trees toppling. About 150 volunteers were on hand throughout the weekend operating out of the department's three firehouses.

A home on Glenn Road, Massapequa was condemned after a tree fell on it, and on Central Avenue, Massapequa, a resident there narrowly escaped injury when a tree fell through her roof and into her bedroom where she was sleeping.

"We also had one of our Fire Chiefs find an elderly alzheimer's patient in a home that had been severely damaged by a falling tree," said Fitzsimmons. "She did not even realize what happened." The volunteers removed her from the home and placed her in the care of a neighbor until family could be notified.

Prioritizing the work and attending to the most pressing problems first was the order of business in all of the communities, which activated their emergency drills.

“Our priority was to open the roads and handle dangerous situations,” said Altadonna. “We made sure people were able to get out of their homes safely and from there we moved to addressing other issues such as clearing out some of the debris and blocking off damaged sidewalks.

If there is a bright side to the storm, Altadonna said it can be found in the fact that this storm seemed to take the weakest of trees, making the community safer in the event of a major hurricane.

“There is less danger of them falling during the next storm,” he said.

Local officials said they are hoping that Gov. David Paterson declares a state of emergency so that the communities hardest hit by the storm will be eligible for federal funds. In the meantime, they said, the clean up goes on.

“Even though things went pretty well, there’s still a lot of clean-up to be done,” said Altadonna.