Families in Haverstraw Evacuated Friday Night Due to Neighborhood Gas Leak

As shul goers were exiting Khal Mevakshei Hashem in Haverstraw, they were greeted by the site of dozens of emergency vehicles pulling up on the street as fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars arrived to evacuate Oakwood Lane due to a gas leak. 

Families along the entire street were told to leave their homes while emergency personnel began to drill into different parts of the street to locate what was feared to be a dangerously large gas leak.

As emergency personnel went house to house to clear the street, they also blew out the Shabbos licht due to the danger of having an open flame in an area with a gas leak. 

Fortunately, the weather was in the mid-forties and dry as families sought shelter in the homes of friends and family who took them in and shared the suedah. 

"It was quite an experience," said Moish Levin, an Oakwood Lane resident whose family ended up at his brother-in-law's home for two and a half tense hours. "The main thing is that everyone and everything is okay. It was also a great teaching moment, which my wife and I used to impress on the kids how we got a small taste of the tzar so many families in Eretz Yisroel who are displaced by the war are going through. Baruch Hashem, this was nothing near that magnitude, but they were all able to better empathize with the situation there and realize we can't take for granted anything  we have."

Emergency personnel were seen working not only on Oakwood Lane but also on  Rosman Road and Mountainview Drive, throughout the night from 6 p.m. until 3 a.m. to resolve the issue. Residents were allowed to return to their homes at 8:30 p.m.

The emergency was the most recent in a series of natural gas leaks that have brought Orange and Rockland utility workers into the neighborhood over the past few days, as residents have reported a strong smell of gas in the area.

The emergency utility work on Friday resulted in the repair of two small leaks on Rosman Road, the smell of which had leached through the storm drains on Oakwood Lane, according to O&R officials.