Friday, august 7, 2015
$1
the Pulse oF the PenInsula
vol. 90, no. 32
Blank Slate Media’s
Best of the North Shore
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LOOK INSIDE FOR THE WINNERS IN THESE CATEGORIES...
Best oF the noRth shoRe
RIce coMes out aGaInst IRan deal
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◆◆◆ August 7, 2015
Epstein speaks about surviving tree fall ‘How the heck did I survive this?’ she asks By J ust I n e schoenBaRt
Stephanie Epstein answered questions about the 5,000 pound tree falling at a news conference last Friday.
When a 5,000-pound tree landed atop the sleeping Stephanie Epstein early Monday, the Village of Great Neck resident said she initially didn’t think she’d make it out alive. “How the heck did I survive this? I can’t believe that was pinning me down,” Epstein, 20, said during a news conference Friday at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Rescue workers spent more than two hours working to free Epstein from beneath the tree, which she said fell on her at a perpendicular angle,
crushing her pelvic and abdomen areas. “I went to bed shortly after 11, and all of the sudden I
See related tree coverage pAgE 2 heard a loud crash,” she said. “I thought it was a big strike of thunder, and then next thing I knew I was pinned under the tree. I thought I was dreaming at first, and it all went on from there.” The SUNY Binghamton student said she tried to keep calm by shutting her eyes and breathing slowly, though a portion of the tree pressed
down on her airways. “I was begging everyone, ‘Get this tree off me, please,’” Epstein said. Epstein’s family sought immediate help from Great Neck Vigilant firefighter Steven Blocker, who lives down the street on Wooleys Lane East. Blocker said he had been getting ready to investigate the source of the crash when Epstein’s family knocked on his door, and he set an IV for Stephanie to prevent her from going into shock. “It was the most frightening moment of my entire life,” Geoffrey Epstein, Stephanie’s father, said Friday. “What started out for us Continued on Page 38
G.N. man injured in car crash near LIRR By n o a h MansKaR
urday night after he crashed his car three feet from the westbound track of the Great Neck The husband of Great Neck train station, Blank Slate Media school board President Barbara has learned. Barry Berkowitz apparently Berkowitz was hospitalized Sat-
lost control of his vehicle around 9 p.m. and crashed through a fence, two barriers and a handrail, stopping on a metal staircase next to an enbankment near the tracks, according to Great Neck Vigilant Fire Department report. Though unnamed in the report, Berkowitz was identified by his wife, who issued a letter to the editor
published in this week’s Great Neck News thanking rescue workers who assisted him. In the letter, Berkowitz said her husband had “suffered a medical incident which resulted in him driving though a fence, his car flying in the air, and landing mere inches from the third rail of the LIRR tracks, miraculously hurting no one and causing no major injury to himself,
much to the amazement of police.” He was sent to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset for treatment of minor injuries and was not made available for comment. “I told my husband he has an angel on his shoulder,” Barbara Berkowitz said in a phone interview Monday, adding police Continued on Page 38
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