Results tagged “stormdrain”

Aww: A passerby heard a kitten mewling from a storm drain in Oceanside, NY, so firefighters worked to rescue the tiny thing from the cold, freezing weather. According to the AP, "The firefighters tried to coax the kitten out of the grate but it was too scared to move. Then they scared it with a fire extinguisher and it jumped out." The kitten was taken Hilton Animal Hospital and "put in a warming cage"—it will be up for adoption when it's deemed healthy.

Aw, we love this: A blind poodle was saved from a storm drain in Mastic Beach yesterday. According to Newsday, Maggie, a 13-year-old poodle who used to be a therapy dog for retired nuns, fell 12-18 feet into a storm drain. "A police officer and several civilians used a crowbar to pry open a 150-pound lid to the storm drain. Then emergency services officers used a large, expandable pole with a large net to scoop up the dog, carefully raising her to the surface." Maggie's owner Patricia Fogarty said she was at her sister's house for a BBQ during the time of the incident and was grateful to her neighbors for realizing that Maggie was trapped, "They showed good American spirit." And Maggie seems to be doing fine—it didn't seem like she was injured.

It was, oh, about one year ago that fisherman Robert Skonieczny first caught wind of an awful stench coming in the direction of Tottenville on Staten Island. Courageously, Skonieczny tracked the odors along Arthur Kill to its source: a storm drain spewing feces and other human waste into a marsh that feeds the bay! A call to 311 was placed, and he was told an investigator would be dispatched to the area. But over time, the smell got worse, the water in the marina got murkier, and the storm drain continued spewing feces, feminine hygiene products and toilet paper. Until yesterday! The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was on the scene and finally fixed an obstructed sanitary sewer that was diverting the waste to the storm sewers. DEP says they never received a complaint until this Monday, and suggested maybe Skonieczny's complaint got sent to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), but that city agency tells the Staten Island Advance they weren't alerted until last Friday. In other sewage news, be advised this is not the weekend for a dip in the Hudson; some 2 million gallons of raw sewage could be dumped in the river Sunday while a pipeline is repaired in Yonkers.