A swimmer vanished off Fire Island during a deadly New York nor’easter that killed a Brooklyn worker as officials warned against entering the ocean.
An unidentified man was seen in the water near Field 3 at Robert Moses State Park around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, then disappeared from view and never came back out, the New York Post reported.
New York State Police launched a search along the western tip of Fire Island as a late September nor’easter slammed Long Island and the city with massive surf, high winds, and falling trees, and left at least one man dead in Brooklyn.
Troopers described the missing swimmer as a white male in dark-colored shorts. They released little else and asked the public for help finding anyone who had been in the area and could not be reached.
Hazardous water conditions were already in effect at the park that afternoon. The ocean was no place for a swim.
The National Weather Service said waves averaged 18 feet. Sea levels ran an estimated 15 to 20 feet, with swells reaching 25 feet at times.
Winds averaged 35 to 45 mph. Gusts topped 60 mph. Long Island sat under a High Wind Warning while storm and coastal flood warnings covered the island, New York City, and parts of New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for the lower counties of New York. The message was blunt: stay out of the water.
Officials warned that extremely dangerous rip currents and high surf made entering the ocean life-threatening. They told the public to stay off rock jetties and beaches where sudden high waves can sweep a person into the water.
"Extremely dangerous rip currents and high surf make entering the ocean life-threatening. Stay off rock jetties and beaches where sudden high waves can sweep you into the water,"
the emergency notice stated.
Hochul urged residents to avoid swimming, surfing, and boating. The worst of the storm was expected through Sunday morning, with an upper-level system forecast to merge with the cyclone and push the center toward New Jersey and Long Island overnight.
About an hour after the swimmer vanished, the storm claimed its first confirmed life in the city.
Leighton Brown, a 56-year-old New York City Housing Authority worker, was struck by a fallen tree around 3:30 p.m. near 700 Euclid Avenue at the Cypress Hills Houses in East New York, Brooklyn.
Heavy winds brought the tree down. Brown suffered trauma throughout his body. Crews took him to a local hospital in critical condition. He was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the death on X and offered condolences to the family.
"My thoughts are with his entire family as they deal with this unimaginable loss. May he rest in peace, and may his service to our city never be forgotten,"
Mamdani wrote.
News12 reported that officials suspended the Fire Island search Saturday evening because of darkness. Crews expected to restart the effort Sunday.
New York State Police had already put the public on notice: if anyone knew of a person who had been in that area and could not be located, they needed to speak up.
The same storm knocked out power across Long Island. As of 4 a.m. Sunday, PowerOutage.com showed nearly 17,000 customers without power in Suffolk County and another 2,000 in Nassau. Trees and branches came down with the wind.
By then the pattern was clear. Dangerous surf. Deadly wind. A missing swimmer. A city worker killed by a falling tree. And repeated orders to stay clear of the water and the beaches.
The nor’easter did not invent new rules. It enforced old ones. When officials flag life-threatening surf and 60-mph gusts, the people who treat those warnings as optional are the ones who pay.
