Hurricane Irene Topples Roosevelt Island Trees - All Parks Closed For Safety Reasons, Watch Out For Falling Branches

You Tube Video of Toppled Trees at Capobianco Field

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) reports that for safety reasons, all Roosevelt Island parks are closed until further notice. According to RIOC

For safety reasons, ALL Parks on Roosevelt Island remain closed. This will be strictly enforced by the RI Public Safety Department.

The Octagon Park Community Garden is closed until further notice due to a fallen tree.

Power has been restored to the Motorgate elevators.

Sincerely,

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group

 Image of Fallen Hurricane Irene Tree at Capobianco Field

Hurricane Irene left fallen tree damage at Roosevelt Island parks

Image of Fallen Hurricane Irene Tree at Near Octagon Field/Garden via Olya Turcihin

 and on streets.

Image of Fallen Hurricane Irene Tree near Main Street via RI Resident Norm

 Some of the trees were very big and pulled up from their roots.

 Image of Roots From Hurricane Irene Fallen Roosevelt Island Tree via Precious Synamunn Foster

Also, damaged tree branches may be in danger of falling on passing pedestrians.

Image of Fallen Hurricane Irene Tree Branch by Main Street via RI Resident Norm

Roosevelt Island resident Raye Schwartz reports that she had frustrating experience informing a Public Safety Officer about a potentially dangerous tree in front of the Rivercross Building. Ms. Schwartz shares this email message she sent to RIOC.

First, thank you to all the RIOC folks who were working tirelessly this weekend without being able to go home. I understand your phone lines were down and you were working in difficult circumstances.

With that said, when I went out on my balcony this afternoon to pick up some debris which landed there during the storm, I looked down (I overlook Main Street, directly over 505) and saw the top

 

 Image From Raye Schwartz

of a tree south of the 505 railing, with its heavy branch split and about to fall. It also appeared, as you can see in the enclosed photos, that the tree was leaning dangerously and from my view above it seemed to be leaning against the building.

 

  Image From Raye Schwartz

We’re still experiencing high winds and I was concerned that it would fall and hurt someone. So, as I couldn’t reach PSD by phone, I did what I thought was responsible and walked over to the PSD office to report it…not, of course, to get a tree surgeon here today, but rather, to ask if they could place some cones or tape to prevent people from walking under it and getting hurt. Instead, the young female officer who was answering the radio told me that people shouldn’t be outside…and she wouldn’t even listen but kept cutting me off! This happened around 2:20PM, after RIOC issued an advisory stating that they were reopening red bus and tram service. Obviously contrary to what this officer thought, RIOC thought it was ok for people to be outside!

It seems to me that when a resident is responsible and caring enough to report a potentially serious danger, that resident should not be treated with such rude behavior by a newbie who thinks her job is to respond in police manual doublespeak! Keith…I really think that you need to have a chat with her. I don’t know her name…she’s very young and I think she needs some training on how to talk to people. The other officers who were there responded that they would check it out and see what needed to be done. I hope that they do that, and I also hope that they would communicate with whatever maintenance staff are available to schedule work on that tree.

Thanks in advance,

Roosevelt Island resident Jonathan Kalkin suggests:

If you see a down tree or any nonemergency issue report it on RIOC's RI311 website. You can upload photos as well. If you see the same issue reported already, vote to fix. Stay safe. Here is the RIOC RI311 link.

Image of Fallen Hurricane Irene Tree at Octagon Field via John Dougherty