PHOTO BY CLIFF DE BEAR 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, a South Shore 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.”

Verity, as well as local officials, firefighters and police, said the ferocity of the storm was what 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.” "Shock and awe," was how Karen Watt of Babylon Village described her feelings as she and her family drove around Babylon immediately following the storm. While there was no loss of life due to the storm reported in Babylon, a 73-year-old woman was killed Saturday as she walked to her car after leaving a family party at 30 Lanier La., Bay Shore. Police identified her as Julia Hughes of Brooklyn. She was rushed to Southside Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after 8:30 p.m. In Babylon Village, Mayor Ralph Scordino commended the fire department and highway crews who, he said, were out Saturday and Sunday, day and night. “They kept going around the Village, cleaning up limbs that were torn off trees and trying to keep the streets clear,” said Scordino. “Neighbors were out helping one another, and while we had some widespread outages initially, LIPA went in with about 20 trucks and got them up and running and most of the area has been restored,” he said on Monday.

PHOTO BY ScOTT VERITY PHOTO BY CLIFF DE BEAR Hardest hit were areas near Wyandanch Avenue, Wampum Road, Paumanake Avenue and the streets south off of Little East Neck Road.

Two mainstays within Amityville and Lindenhurst villages were hard hit. In Amityville, the tree in the Triangle, which is the centerpiece of that Village’s Christmas celebration each year, came tumbling down. Village officials did not immediately cut it up and haul it away, however, saying they wanted to first make sure it could not be saved.

Top photo is of the Gazebo in Lindenhurst, which was flattened by the storm. Below that, someone recreates a scene from TheWizard of Oz killing the Wicked Witch of the East. Inset, hail measures a centimeter. “We looked at it carefully,” said Imbert, “but the main root system was broke and one side of the tree was destroyed, so even if we could put it back up, it would have been only a half of a tree.”

Crews worked on Monday to cut and cart away the large tree that fell across Park Avenue.

In Lindenhurst, the gazebo, the centerpiece of Village Square in that community, was torn apart and destroyed by the high winds.

“It’s not salvageable,” said Village Clerk Shawn Cullinane. “We will be inspecting it to see what the foundation looks like and go through the insurance process to have it replaced.”

Above, a tree is uprooted on Melbury Court, Babylon Village. At right, a canvas carport was torn off its frame and tossed into power lines by the wind in Lindenhurst. Below, a huge pine tree topples in Amityville. In that community, power lines came down at the corner of Montauk Highway and 6th Street and were burning. Crews were dispatched to that location quickly to neutralize the danger, Cullinane said.

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 operations.

“Our priority was to keep the roads open and handle emergencies,” said Scordino. “From there, we will continue with the clean up.”

If there is a bright side to the storm, Imbert 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. “This was a good precursor in the event we ever get hit with a category-3 storm,” said Imbert. “By weeding out the weakest trees, we are now less likely to have the kind of damage that would leave us in a blackout lasting weeks, not days.”

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, it was painful,” said Imbert. “And there’s still a lot more work to be done.”

“Everyone did an outstanding job under the most difficult of circumstances,” said Scordino.

“The entire community owes a debt of gratitude to everyone who went out there and did a great job,” said Lindenhurst Mayor Tom Brennan. “They were there when we needed them.”