Ida On Long Island: 80-Foot Oak Falls On Lloyd Neck Home, Nearby Caumsett State Park Devastated

LLOYD HARBOR, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Ida's deluge walloped the North Shore peninsula of Long Island. Communities suffered severe damage when a possible tornado moved across water, toppling trees onto homes.

CBS2's Jennifer McLogan spoke to one couple that barely escaped with their lives.

"That is where we were! In that bed, sound asleep. This thing came down. We were still sound asleep," Peter Murphy said Thursday.

Peter and his wife, Ginger, both 82 years old, never thought Hurricane Ida's remnants would bring such wrath to their beloved Lloyd Neck community.

"Anyway, we are happy to be alive," Ginger Murphy said.

They said they like to think it was divine intervention that spared them when their 80-foot hardwood oak weighing several tons came crashing through the roof where they lay sleeping. Their son, Mark, was upstairs.

"I heard the trees starting to snap like twigs and then I heard the crash," Mark Murphy said.

"Mark kicked open the door and came in and then I saw this tree right in front of me," Ginger Murphy said.

"I kind of carried my mom over the tree and then helped by father out with his cane," Mark Murphy added.

As the community plunged into powerlessness, first responders arrived throughout the night and early morning, assisting as PSEG LI secured live wires.

National Weather Service meteorologists were on hand inspecting the damage -- some catastrophic -- that blew through a square mile area adjacent to Long Island Sound.

"It could be a microburst, it could be a water spout, it could be a tornado. We'll leave that to the National Weather Service," Lloyd Harbor Police Chief Thomas Krumpter said.

Nearby, historic Caumsett State Park was in the path of destruction and was forced to close.

"We have hundreds of uprooted trees. We have trees that have been twisted. We've had trees that had tops broken off," said George Gorman, director of New York State Regional Parks.

The Murphy's neighborhood was ravaged.

"That's what it it was, it was a twister," Peter Murphy said.

"They're lucky to be alive," Mark Murphy said.

"We'll pick up the pieces and keep going," Ginger Murphy added.

It will take days to clear trees and months to repair all the damage.