Luckily, our website is hosted with Garden City Internet technology firm Webair, whose state-of-the-art facilities never even blinked during Mother Nature’s furious onslaught. For the next couple of days, occasionally sitting in their offices, we were able to provide the free, accurate and important information that the L.I. public has come to know and trust us for. Our coverage was live and uninterrupted, which ended up being a priceless resource for hundreds of thousands of our friends, family and neighbors.

Our coverage during the storm recently won us a few journalism awards, but that’s not why we worked so hard during those crazy days.

We understood the importance of delivering information to our audience during this unprecedented event.

We needed to be able to communicate with the public.

We wanted to help. And we did.

But we couldn’t have done it without Webair, and as a result, we wholeheartedly endorse them, and urge business owners on Long Island to consider them for their internet hosting needs.

Visit Webair at www.webair.com

Jones Beach was significantly damaged by Superstorm Sandy but officials expect the popular beach to be open in time for Memorial Day Weekend. (Photo: Christopher Twarowski/Long Island Press

Bring on the waves.

Long Islanders received a bit of good news Monday that all New York State-run beaches and parks are expected to be open by Memorial Day Weekend, the unofficial start of summer, despite significant damage from Sandy.

Many area parks and beaches were battered by the October superstorm, which caused extensive damage to shore-front roads, structures and contributed to significant dune and beach erosion. Several repair projects are still ongoing, some of which will continue after the parks are opened.

“Our parks and beaches are not only popular destinations for vacationers, but they are also important economic drivers for our communities,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “We will continue to work diligently to ensure that these great assets are in safe and good condition for visitors to enjoy this summer.”

The news was met with cheers from local officials still dealing with post-Sandy repairs. Officials noted the economic boost of opening up the parks just in time for the holiday weekend.

In 2012, more than 18 million people visited state parks and beaches on Long Island and four state parks on LI—Jones Beach, Robert Moses, Sunken Meadow and Heckscher—ranked in the top 10 in the state.

“Our parks and beaches on Long Island are the escape that people need,” said New York State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey, adding that Jones Beach State Park has more yearly visitors than Arizona’s Grand Canyon. “Sandy caused a lot of destruction but our crews and contractors are fiercely working to get us in great shape to kick off the summer.”

But plenty of repair work remains before the parks and beaches can be opened to visitors.

Many of Jones Beach’s electrical vaults were submerged during Sandy and crews are still working to replace and raise panels to prevent damage from future storms. The beach’s popular theater, which was submerged in four feet of water, is still a work in progress. The theater suffered damage to the VIP boardwalk, tented areas, orchestra seating and entire electrical system, officials said.

Fields 2, 5, 10 and West End 2 of Jones Beach are currently open to the public but areas between the West Bathhouse and the East Bathouse remain closed due to boardwalk damage.

Crews are also installing planking on top of the Central Mall and lifeguard stands in that area, including Field 2.

At Robert Moses State Park, workers are currently restoring a section of the roadway at the south side of the park’s traffic circle that collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean after Sandy, officials said. Construction at the beach includes placing 500,000 cubic yards of sand to replenish Fields 4 and 5, and more than 300,000 cubic yards of that sand is being dredged from the Captree State Boat Channel. All parking fields will be open come Memorial Day, officials said.

“We are confident that Memorial Day Weekend will be as good or better as we saw last year,” said New York State Parks Deputy Regional Director George Gorman.

Construction efforts are being funded by the state but parks department officials will soon apply for federal reimbursement.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had barred residents from harvesting shellfish in underwater lands in the Great South Bay and South Oyster Bay on Oct. 29, 2012—the day Sandy struck Long Island.

State environmental officials said severe coastal flooding and massive power outages had forced them to close those areas to shellfish harvesting in order to protect public health.

The closure was lifted at sunrise on Saturday.

Shellfish harvesting is permitted in these areas:

Town of Hempstead: All the normally certified shellfish lands in South Oyster Bay, lying easterly of the Wantagh Parkway (Jones Beach Causeway).

Town of Oyster Bay: All the normally certified shellfish areas of South Oyster Bay.

Town of Babylon: All the normally certified shellfish areas of Great South Bay.

Last Hurricane Sandy dog, Bruno, greets the media before leaving for Westchester.

Four months had passed and all but one displaced animal at an emergency Nassau County pet shelter had been released when a group of dedicated volunteers campaigned to find the dog a permanent home.

They were intent on living out a promise made to the animals when Hurricane Sandy slammed Long Island and turned their owners’ lives upside down. The pact: leave no animal behind.

In a bitter sweet celebration Saturday highlighted by the Rottweiler’s happy farewell from the shelter, Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano thanked all volunteers for their spirit, dedication and steadfast commitment to care for each and every animal that walked through the doors of the abandoned gymnasium at Mitchel Field in Garden City—even the turtles, rabbits, parrots and Betta Fish.

Nassau County “kept the shelter open to ease the stresses” for owners impacted by Sandy, Mangano said inside the makeshift shelter, which housed its last guest, Bruno, for the final time Friday night. Bruno is headed to a Northwind Kennels, a rescue organization in Bedford, which will keep him comfortable as they vet potential families that could adopt him.

Bruno with Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.

All that remained at the shelter Saturday were disassembled metal crates, more than a dozen wooden pallets holding pet food, water and other necessities, and a brick wall festooned with photos of the some of the 55 cats and dogs adopted or released to their owners or foster home. In total, 515 pets were sheltered at the gymnasium during and after Sandy. The remaining pets returned to their owners.

Eventually, the celebration became all about Bruno as members of the press were finally able to meet the 7-year-old dog for the first time, albeit at a safe distance as not to stress out the pup.

“He’s been so traumatized from being ripped away from his life,” Nassau County SPCA spokesman Gary Rogers said of Bruno, who was displaced when he and his owner were left homeless by the Oct. 29 superstorm. The Rottweiler’s owner, Christopher, lost his job and has been unable to find work since.

The pair finally split up recently when the owner told volunteers that he had to think about what’s best for the dog and “not myself,” according to Rogers.

Their relationship ended with a tearful goodbye, Rogers said, with Christopher on the floor crying with Bruno.

Bruno’s story took on a life of its own after the Nassau County SPCA sent out a news release pleading for another group to help find him a home. Rogers estimates that the SPCA has received more than a thousand inquiries about Bruno through phone calls and emails, including one such inquiry from a local soldier serving in Afghanistan.

“Bruno has reached new heights,” Mangano said.

That Bruno and other pets were allowed to live in the shelter for as long as they did was a credit to Nassau County, volunteers said, because pet shelters rarely remain open beyond several weeks following an emergency.

Rogers said he’s never witnessed 100 percent of pets find a home following an emergency and noted that the shelter took in animals from Suffolk County and New York City after they closed their respective pet shelters after a few weeks.

“That put an added burden here,” he said.

Mangano thanked the SPCA, Wantagh-based Pet Safe Coalition, HUG and county employees that volunteered their time during the four months the shelter was open.

All that’s left is finding Bruno a permanent home.

“I think we’re going to try and keep him in Nassau County,” Mangano said.

Bruno was the last displaced dog from Superstorm Sandy. (Photo: Handout)

A national animal rescue group has stepped forward to help the last displaced Hurricane Sandy dog in Nassau County find a home before the emergency shelter he was staying in since the storm closes Saturday, a Nassau County SPCA spokesman said Friday.

UPDATE: Bruno leaves pet shelter

Bruno and his owner were displaced from their Long Beach home following the Oct. 29 superstorm. The Rottweiler’s owner, who lost his job after the hurricane, was hired outside New York State and had to say goodbye to the pup.

On Thursday, the Nassau County SPCA sent out a heartfelt news release regarding Bruno’s dire situation and pleaded for help finding the “strong and sometimes stubborn” dog a home.

Bruno’s story touched the hearts of pet lovers across the country and quickly went viral. Now someone is stepping in to help.

The county will say farewell to Bruno at a press conference Saturday, when they will officially identify his saviors. Bruno has yet to be adopted, but there is a plan in place to help the dog find a new family, officials said.

“Bruno is a devoted dog,” said Gary Rogers, spokesperson for the Nassau County SPCA. “He has a strong and sometimes stubborn Rottweiler personality that would fit best with an owner who understands the breed, but he becomes a loveable puppy around the people he really knows and trusts. He has had a very difficult last few months and we are desperate to find him a happy ending.”

Beverly Poppell, vice president of Wantagh’s Pet Safe Coalition, one of the volunteer groups that took care of the 515 animals displaced by Sandy, said a lot of research went into Bruno’s case because “not just anybody could take him.”

The animals all had owners who dropped the pets off at the temporary shelter inside an abandoned former gymnasium in Mitchel Field to keep them safe during the storm. All but 50 of the animals returned to their owners and the remaining pets found new homes.

“It’s a wonderful thing that happened,” Rogers said Friday. “Everybody came together and worked together as a team.”

He credited Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano for allowing volunteers to keep the shelter open as long as possible. No animal was going to be left behind, he said.

“What Ed Mangano did here, he’ll forever have my respect,” he said.

Fire Island’s nude beaches are no more (Lighthouse Beach Times).

Fire Island’s famed nude beaches have become the latest casualty of Superstorm Sandy.

Fire Island National Seashore officials announced in early February that they will start enforcing New York State laws against public nudity at Lighthouse Beach, a clothing-optional beach between Robert Moses State Park Field 5 and Kismet that drew up to 4,000 nudists on summer days.

“We have school groups and tour groups coming to that area and right next door there’s thousands of nude people,” said Lena Koschmann, chief FINS ranger, referring to the Fire Island Lighthouse, an adjacent tourist attraction. “That beach was never meant to be a heavily used beach.”

Koschmann said that the Sandy-damaged boardwalk to the Fire Island Lighthouse means visitors will have to walk down the beach through the area where the nudists gathered. She added that the decision was also based on an increase in criminal activity at the nude beach, the lack of lifeguards and restrooms and the impact the crowds are having on the environment. Violators who ignore the ban face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

Save Lighthouse Beach, a naturalist group, had tried to pre-empt the decision by starting a “Beach Ambassador” program to have volunteers remind the beach’s users to clean up after themselves and not break the law. But Koschmann said that despite such efforts, the nude beach increasingly became advertised online as a meeting place for public sex and prostitution.

Lighthouse Beach was technically a pair of clothing optional beaches separated by a patch of non-nude beach in the area closest to the lighthouse to separate tourists and nudists. But even if the boardwalks were repaired in time for the summer season, the fact that the dunes had been decimated by Sandy means the beach is now visible from the lighthouse.

Larry Jensen, who runs the nude beach website Lighthouse Beach Times, posted a farewell letter online suggesting he may leave New York and blaming the National Park Service that oversees FINS for the decision.

“Many of you may have seen the thousand or so photos I have captured in an attempt to record just how amazing it was to me,” he wrote. “But alas it is but a memory now as the National Park Service has decided that me and my people are no longer welcome here.”

The beach has been a destination for nudists since as early as the 1960s but it wasn’t formally recognized by FINS until 2005, according to Koschmann. New York State outlawed public nudity in 1984, but as a federal park, FINS had opted not to enforce that law.

The new no-nudity rules comes as Robert Moses State Park remains closed four months after the Oct. 29 superstorm that ravaged Long Island’s barrier islands—especially FI. The ban will also be enforced in other nude-friendly beaches along FI, such as Cherry Grove to the east.

“I’ve had a mixed response,” Koschmann said. “The majority of them are disappointed and asking us to rethink our decision, but I’ve also had some people calling in…who are supportive.”

Cheeburger Cheeburger (Photo: www.cheeburger.com)

A bite of a cheeseburger will probably never feel this gratifying.

Popular Farmingdale burger joint, Cheeburger Cheeburger, is looking to help Superstorm Sandy victims get back on their feet by donating a portion of its sales Thursday to the Nassau Hurricane Recovery Fund, officials said.

The benefit will run from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and only includes the Farmingdale location.

The restaurant will donate 20 percent of each check from the day’s receipts to the recovery fund.

“There are too many Nassau residents who are still suffering from the impact of Hurricane Sandy,” Nassau County Executive Mangano said in a statement urging residents to help out storm victims by grabbing some grub at the restaurant Thursday.

The fund was created by the county last November to assist residents affected by the historic hurricane, which struck on Oct. 29.

“Priority is given to those applicants who are not entitled to reimbursement from FEMA, do not have homeowners or flood insurance and are not receiving assistance from other government relief programs,” the county said of the relief fund.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone gives his second State of the County address in Hauppauge on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone proposed streamlining government processes, warned of continued budget deficits and rallied for rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy during his second State of the County address Tuesday night.

Between reflecting on his first year in office and doling out accolades, the first-term Democrat spent a significant portion of his speech reinforcing to legislators his plan to sell the John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank—a local political hot potato. If its sale does not go through, explained Bellone, he’d be forced to close the facility.

“The state of our county is that we are rebuilding,” Bellone, the former Babylon Town Supervisor, said before a packed legislative chamber in Hauppauge. “This is a county that has faced challenges before and always emerged stronger.”

His address comes as Long Island waits for billions in federal Sandy aid dollars to begin flowing nearly four months after the historic storm that seriously strained government resources across the tri-state area.

Bellone also reiterated support for the police department’s shift toward focusing on recidivism reduction, intelligence-led policing and improving the monitoring of sex offenders after he appointed Commissioner Ed Webber.

Legis. John Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), leader of the GOP minority, questioned Bellone’s management skills and whether the county exec’s quest to speed up government would mean bypassing the legal processes established in the county charter.

“It appears that were tripping over ourselves to save pennies, when dollars are flying out of the window,” said Kennedy, vowing to launch an inquiry into the recent record-setting blizzard in his 10-minute Republican response to Bellone’s hour-long speech.

“Despite all of the changes that we have made to make our government smaller and more efficient, we still have a significant structural deficit,” Bellone said, meaning Suffolk still has more annual bills than recurring revenues after cutting 700 county workers. “While we’ve made great progress, we still have a long way to go.”

Some of the relocated guests of Olympic Motor Lodge on Vanderbilt Motor Parkway were reported to include Hurricane Sandy families, but an American Red Cross spokesman said there was no indication that any of the guests they assisted were Sandy victims.

The Red Cross responded to the scene and met with eight people—a family of four, a family of three and one man—and discovered that they were already being assisted by the Department of Social Services, which put them up at another hotel, Red Cross spokesman Michael de Vulpillieres said.

The blaze, which is being investigated by Suffolk County Police Arson Squad detectives, broke out just after 8 p.m., police said. According to police, a guest in a second floor room admitted that he had fallen asleep while smoking and woke up to a burning mattress. He unsuccessfully tried to put out the fire, which spread to two adjacent rooms, police said.

The motel was evacuated as firefighters from Brentwood, Hauppauge, East Brentwood and Central Islip descended on the motel and extinguished the blaze.

There were no reported injuries, police said.

The motel had 17 occupied rooms at the time of the fire, police said. The motel sustained fire and water damage, police said, adding that the investigation is continuing.

The Red Cross confirmed that Olympic Motor Lodge wasn’t a designated motel for Sandy victims, de Vulipillieres said. He noted that some guests may have been working on Sandy response, and were never affected by the hurricane.

President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

President Barack Obama laid out more than a dozen new initiatives Tuesday in the first State of the Union address of his second term, packing an array of issues into the hour-long speech, including four—climate change, immigration, veterans and gun control—of particular importantance to Long Islanders, a few of whom were in the audience.

Obama started off flat while discussing his budget and tax reform proposals, but he worked his way up to an emotional plea for Congress to enact new restrictions on firearms sales to reduce the number of gun deaths nationwide. He sounded encouraged by current immigration reform talks among lawmakers, but the president oscilated between urging the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to negotiate a compromise on the upcoming deficit reduction plan known as sequestration, and threatening to use executive orders if Congress doesn’t act on global warming.

“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen, were all just a freak coincidence,” Obama said, referring in part to the Oct. 29 hurricane-nor’easter hybrid that ravaged LI and the Northeast. ”Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”

The president remained vague on most of his proposals, choosing to paint a broad picture of the goals he’s setting for the year to come, but did get into some specifics while discussing immigration and, to a lesser degree, gun control.

“Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals,” the president said, before rallying for a vote on the bill. ”Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because these police chiefs, they’re tired of seeing their guys and gals being outgunned.”

Among those top cops was John Aresta, the Malverne village police chief, whose uncle was among six murdered in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre. He was invited to attend by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), whose husband was killed and son injured in the same shooting spree that launched her to the national stage to advocate for gun control.

“I personally don’t see a reason why anybody would need a 30-round clip or a 10-round clip for an assault rifle,” Aresta had told Fox Business News  last month shortly after New York State passed sweeping new gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre in December.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), the lone Republican among LI’s five-member Congressional delegation, wrote on Twitter that he was disapointed in Obama’s lack of focus on unemployment and deficit reduction, but co-authored an op-ed in Politico expressing support for ensuring background checks for all  gun purchases, with the exception of gifts between family members or temporary transfers for hunters. He noted national estimates that only four in 10 gun buyers are subject to such checks.

New York City got two mentions. Obama first touted the heroic nurses who evacuated newborn babies from the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan during Sandy, signaling Menchu Sanchez by name. She was seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama. He later extolled the benefits of P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York and IBM, where students graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in computers or engineering—a model he wants emulated nationwide.

The emphasis on improving education to better the economy dovetailed with his reasons for supporting immigration, a hotly debated issue on LI, where undocumented Hispanic immigrant day laborers have repeatedly been victims of Suffolk County hate crimes in recent years.

“Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants,” Obama said, emphasizing that reform must include stronger border security, cutting waiting periods, attracting highly skilled engineers and ”establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship—a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and … learning English.”

But some immigration issues are easier to solve than others. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) invited as his guests Dania and Nick Marvos, a Little Neck couple who were in the process of adopting a 1-year-old boy named Ari from Russia until two months ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American adoptions of Russian children. The move was widely seen as retaliation for a recently passed U.S. law punishing Russian human rights violators.

“Waiting for news to see if we will be allowed to bring our baby home has been one of the most trying times in our lives,” Dania Mavros said in a statement released by Israel’s office. ”Devastating does not capture the emotional roller coaster that we are enduring every day.”

Congressman Israel said he is negotiating to help the couple complete the adoption process despite the new Russian law in an attempt to save their son-to-be from growing up in an orphanage. Thousands of other cases are also in jeopardy.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) invited Dina McKenna of Lindenhurst, whose husband, Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 of cancer caused by his exposure to toxic fumes from burn pits the military used for disposing of hazardous waste in Iraq. Bishop had laws passed to curtail the use of burn pits and require the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve its treatment of soldiers exposed to them.

“All veterans whose health may have been affected by toxic burn pits must be accounted for and given the health care and support they have earned,” Bishop said in a statement.

Obama’s nod to veterans came as he promised to better defend against cyber attacks, end the more than decade-long war in Afghanistan “by the end of next year,” prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons and isolate North Korea for its provocations in testing nuclear weapons potentially capable of being fitted on inter-continental ballistic missles. He reiterated plans to strengthen U.S. missle defense to block such an attack.

The commander-in-chief also made clear that while the military will not be sending large numbers of troops abroad for Iraq-style occupations, he vaguely referred to special operations forces that will continue to hunt al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and wherever else they may be hiding. He made veiled reference to the continued deployment of predator drones despite recently renewed controversy over their use to kill American citizens working with terrorists, such as Westbury-native Samir Khan, the al-Qaeda propagandist killed in U.S. airstrikes alongside militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011.

“Where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans,” he said.