UPDATE: All roads open on Shelter Island

There are no road closures on Shelter Island; all thoroughfares became passable on Shelter Island before noon, according to Highway Superintendent Ken Lewis.

With the exceptionally high tide from earlier in the morning receding, and the wind and heavy downpours slacking off, the Highway Department was in a clean-up mode this afternoon, Mr. Lewis said.

“The drains did well,” he added, noting that even well-maintained road drains will back up with severe flooding and constant rain. Once the tide began to go out, the drains did their jobs, he said.

There are still areas with deep puddles, especially on the causeways, the superintendent said.

Several large trees came down in the high winds, aided by saturated ground that couldn’t hold the roots, Mr. Lewis said. But since most of them didn’t have much foliage now in the early spring, damage was limited.

There are a fair number of sticks and tree limbs to be cleaned up, along with debris from the bays when the flooding occurred at high tide this morning.

As for tonight’s high tide, scheduled just before 8 p.m., Mr. Lewis said, “We’re not anticipating what we had last night. The winds have died down” and he didn’t expect any severe flooding.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has updated its forecast for Shelter Island, calling for a slight chance of showers before 10 p.m. It will be cloudy, with a low around 36 degrees, so there’s an outside chance of snow showers, according to the NWS.

Winds will be light, out of the northwest at 6 to 9 mph.

Friday is expected to be sunny, with a high of 49 degrees, and the wind shifting to the west at 10 to 15 mph.

Below is the original story posted this morning.

Constant downpours, strong winds and particularly high tides over the last several days have caused widespread flooding on Shelter Island.

Bridge Street was underwater Thursday morning and Highway Department crews closed off the main thoroughfare.

Police Chief Jim Read reported that traffic has been diverted away from Bridge Street and down New York Avenue.

Also experiencing severe flooding were the causeways, Ram Island Road, and West Neck Road near West Neck Bay, Chief Read said.

At 8: 30 a.m., Chief Read said both ferries were “fully operational,” but slowed because of the severe weather. Small cars, built low to the ground, were asked to wait, and not drive through high water at the terminals.

PSEG crews had been on the Island dealing with outages caused by downed trees and branches across power lines. The power company reported six outages on the Island at 6 a.m., affecting 296 customers.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is forecasting showers to continue through noon today with a high temperature of 45 degrees. The wind will remain strong out of the northeast at 14 to 18 mph, gusting as high as 28 mph.

Tonight, there is a 30% chance of rain between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., according to the NWS, with the wind dropping to 6 to 9 mph.