NEW YORK — A leak in a large propane gas tank at a suburban shopping center forced residents out of 900 homes early on New Year's Day and shut down a swath of roads and railroad service. Authorities said the disruption could last into Sunday.
Residents of a roughly square-mile section of eastern Long Island were told to get out around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, shortly after a propane delivery driver discovered a broken valve in a 30,000-gallon tank near a Kohl's department store in Shirley, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said. The underground tank may have been about half-full, he said.
As hundreds of evacuees spent the first morning of 2011 in relatives' homes, local diners and at a high school that had been opened as an emergency shelter, a tanker truck was en route to siphon the remaining propane from the tank, Levy said. Meanwhile, officials worked to freeze the gas to stop the leak, he said.
The effort "could go into tomorrow," he said in a telephone interview. "We're not sure yet."
Stretches of the Sunrise Highway, Montauk Highway and some other major thoroughfares were closed in the area, about 70 miles east of Manhattan. The Long Island Rail Road suspended service between Speonk and Patchogue. Some 20 fire departments and a host of other agencies had converged on the shopping center.
Meanwhile, more than 150 people spent at least part of the morning at an emergency shelter at William Floyd High School, some arriving in pajamas and slippers, said Craig Cooper, a spokesman for the American Red Cross' Suffolk County Chapter.
"They listened when police said, 'Get out of your house now,'" he said.
While many evacuees moved on to wait at friends' homes or elsewhere, about 50 remained and newcomers were still arriving at midday, after heading home from New Year's Eve parties or vacations to find their neighborhood barricaded, he said.
While no injuries were reported, officials were concerned about the possible risk of an explosion as the gas seeped out, potentially collecting in areas below and near ground. Had there been a blast, it could have affected the entire square-mile area, fire officials said.
"We didn't want to take any chances," Levy said.
It wasn't immediately clear who owned the tank; a gas company that officials identified as the owner said it actually wasn't. The chief executive of the propane delivery company referred calls to the New York Propane Gas Association. Representatives of the association didn't immediately answer calls or e-mail messages.