Riverhead roadways remain open through storms

Riverhead Town and National Weather Service officials are warning motorists to take it slow on area roadways, as a string of powerful thunderstorms that started sweeping through the area early Monday are making driving extremely difficult.

Although no roads were closed as of 9:30 a.m., town highway superintendent George “Gio” Woodson said vacuum trucks were heading to Sylvan Drive in Wading River and Hallock Street in Riverhead to mitigate some of the flooding.

Huge puddles have also been reported on Fairway Avenue near East Main Street, Hubbard Avenue near Edgar Avenue, in the westbound lanes of Main Road in Aquebogue in front of The Vineyard caterers, and in both lanes along a stretch of Main Road in Laurel.

“The storm drains are only rated to handle about an inch an hour, and we’ve probably had more than two inches so it’s going to take a while for the roads to clear off, ” Mr. Woodson said.

“We’re going to have some flooding issues out there, so people should just take it easy.”

Only one tree limb was reported down in town, along Remson Road near St. John’s church in Wading River, Mr. Woodson said.

Fire reports of downed wires came out of Pine Street in Wading River about 1:15 p.m.

The National Weather Service has issued an urban flood advisory for Suffolk County until 10:30 a.m., saying flooding in low-lying areas was to be expected.

NWS warns drivers to turn and find other routes, rather than driving into roadways completely covered by water.

“Most flooding deaths occur in automobiles,” the advisory reads.

Only relatively minor flooding was expected, meaning it would inconvenience people but was not likely to cause major property damages.

There were about 120 Long Island Power Authority customers in the Riverhead area being affected by the storm, according to LIPA’s online power outage map.