Updated Wednesday, Oct. 31, 5:20 p.m.
The wreckage began early as Sandy approached Monday night.
A large tree was uprooted by the wind and fell onto power lines, snapping a utility pole like a toothpick on Tibbett Avenue near West 246th Street at approximately 7 p.m., according to neighbors. Across the street on West 246th Street, a tree fell onto power lines, blowing up a transformer, which was lying on the sidewalk Tuesday morning.
“It was like an explosion, like a big light. I was in bed watching TV and I saw the window light up, and that was it. That’s the last light I saw,” said Shoshona Stadtmauer, a Tibbett Avenue resident. The next day, power lines were still strewn across the street.
Dorine Bryan, who lives near Giles Place, said she saw the sky light up an unusual color.
"The sky is blue but I've never seen it turquoise," she said.
On Bailey Avenue north of West 238th Street, sparks flew from electrical wires, popping like fireworks for more than an hour on Monday night as lights in Kingsbridge flickered.
The Riverdale Yacht Club was flooded. Water began to reach land early Monday and by Tuesday morning the club had sustained significant flood damage.
A member at the club who did not want to give his name, said it got “clobbered” and the damage was much worse than Irene, a sentiment echoed by Fieldston residents.
On Tuesday morning, a jet ski sat in the yacht club parking lot, more than a hundred feet from where it was parked the night before.
The storm sparked blazes across the city, including an inferno that destroyed 80 homes in Breezy Point in Queens, buried seven subway tunnels under the East River, flooded six bus garages and left 780,000 without power.
MTA Chair Joseph Lhota described the wreckage left in Sandy’s wake as the biggest challenge the agency has faced since subway lines began running 108 years ago.
An evacuation center set up at the David A. Stein, Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141 was open, but largely empty through Wednesday, according to a staffer.
“I would get prepared for the long haul for power restoration,” said Community Board 8 President Bob Fanuzzi on Tuesday.
“I do think we are lucky compared to other areas,” he said.
Although in some neighborhoods, Sandy blew away all evidence of Halloween, scattering pumpkins and decorative cobwebs about the street, some found a way to make the best of the storm.
“We had a romantic candlelight dinner,” said 10-year-old Lillian Maidman, who was out with her mom Randi on Tuesday surveying the damage near their home on College Road.
