Long Island Residents Dealing With Sandy-Related Garbage Nightmare

LIDO BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Plagued by filth, health concerns are mounting on Long Island's South Shore.

Streets in one local community are still buried in more than two weeks of trash build-up and another is pumping out rivers of raw sewage.

A large trash pile the locals in Lido Beach have dubbed "Mount Sandy" sits near the ocean front. It's a mountain of ruined possessions -- 100,000 cubic yards and growing.

But as massive as it is, some folks said their own piles haven't been picked up in 17 days.

"You've got mold, you've got animals, you've lots of nails," resident Sheri Davis-Siegel told CBS 2's Carolyn Gusoff on Friday.

"It's terrible -- how can we proceed to recover and start to put things back together?" asked Long Beach resident Charles Montross.

Long Beach officials said crews are working around the clock, but some streets are so narrow and were buried in so much sand they need special equipment.

But with the insides of homes destroyed, it's hard to cope with garbage piles on the outside.

"It makes it more depressing seeing it. Just would feel a lot better if we just saw the garbage gone," John Bartichek said.

Meanwhile, flooded out homeowners in Baldwin and East Rockaway are dealing with a different kind of health hazard.

"Every day I go home, I take a shower for an hour and I throw out the shoes I had on. I just don't know how to protect myself from this mess. This is how cholera started," Bay Park resident Randee Gerry said.

Sewage on their streets and in their homes, backing up through toilets and bathtubs. The storm surge ruptured sewage mains.

Now, the Nassau County Health Department has declared a state of emergency for the homes. The county said it will pay for the clean up.

It said, at this point, it's just storm water, bur residents said sewage continues to flow from the storm drains and into one house every day with high tide.

"Flooding every day...it never stops. I'm continuously pumping water out of the house," Bay Park's Larry Villagas said.

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