Close Calls and Near Misses, Your Sandy Stories

Neil Ivler said he would have been in his bedroom in a few hours, but instead he heard the crash from his downstairs living room.

The White Plains man said the sound of a tree hitting the side of his house near Avondale Rd. was scary, but he's thankful no one was in any of the bedrooms. His father Sandy Ivler, who was staying in White Plains during the storm, said the close call was enough to force the family to move the mattresses downstairs and sleep there.

"You heard a snap then a crash," Sandy Ivler said. "It was right outside the kids' window, it hit the corner of the roof. We would have been sleeping there in a couple of hours."

Sandy Ivler was staying with his son and daughter in law in their home on Ethelridge Rd. for the night. He lives in Island Park, Long Island, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

"We have no power and we understand there was flooding for sure," he said. "We're a little concerned."

In Mamaroneck a large group of people were walking along Carroll Ave. assessing damage Tuesday. There was plenty to look at, several trees had fallen across the street and a transformer box had fallen into the middle of the road.

One large tree, at least 100 years old, according to a neighbor's calculations, was ripped from the ground roots intact. The tree lifted the sidewalk from the ground and landed on the cab of a truck parked in the road.

The truck's owner, Lawrence Lopez, said he was just thankful he wasn't inside. Based on where the tree landed, anyone inside could have been killed.

"I was a little bit upset at first," Lopez said. "But there's nothing you can do about it, at least no one was hurt."

Karen Christopher, who lives in an apartment on Halstead Ave. with her husband Ken Christopher, said she saw a transformer box explode Monday night before losing power.

"Big flashes, huge flashes, different colors," she said. "I thought at first it was lightning."

Karen Christophersaid she couldn't hear any of the large trees breaking nearby, but that she had some anxious moments looking out her window.

"All the trees were bending, I would say, at a 60 degree angle," she recalls. "I had visions of a tree coming through my window."

Peggy Hanna, of Mamaroneck, said she saw a transformer box explode around 6 p.m. Monday. "We had a transformer box going off," she said. "The fireworks last night. Boom! That was wild."

Downed wires were a common site in the region Monday evening. By Tuesday morning Consolidated Edison was reporting that 173,000 people in Westchester were without power. It could take more than a week to bring power back to some areas.

Ken Christopher said he could see why; this is the worst storm he remembers hitting Westchester County.

"The last (big) one was Gloria, I was around for that one in 1985 and that wasn't a big deal, I mean we lost power for maybe 24 hours in that storm but there wasn't this kind of devastation by any means," he said. "It's going to take a while for this whole area to recuperate."