After super storm Sandy, no hot showers but also no crime

ASHAROKEN, N.Y. -- The police department, village clerk and mayor’s office here all share a three-room, white shingle house 100 feet from the marsh grasses of Northport Bay.

In the wake of Sandy, police officers and the clerk were pulling up wet carpet Thursday morning, and there was still no power. The village’s 87 years of records were high and dry, stacked in boxes on a large table. The surging bay had flooded the office Monday and filled the road on the other side with four feet of water.

“A lot of people smell bad,” said Raymond C. Mahdesian, the officer in charge of the Asharoken Police Department. “Including myself.”

PHOTOS: Super storm Sandy | Before and after the storm

He stayed up for 36 hours during the storm with his 11 officers, manning the radio. He hasn’t taken a warm shower since.

Mahdesian and his officers are helping clear roads of downed trees and washed up docks, and coordinating utility repairs. Many homes were flooded, or had boats pulled from their moorings and dumped ashore.

Asharoken sits on a narrow sand bar on the Long Island Sound about an hour’s drive from Manhattan. The storm carried out so much sand, rocks and flotsam that the peninsula was almost cut off from Long Island. A single road leads in and out.

Mahdesian is on guard for looters trying to take advantage of the chaos. But the village hasn’t really seen major crime in his 40 years on the force.

“This is Mayberry,” said Mahdesian, who was wearing a blue Police Department sweatshirt. “We have a no-crime policy.”

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