Hundreds of elderly people in areas of Queens struck hard by Hurricane Sandy are stuck in high-rise apartments without food and water, according to Brian Lydon of East Hampton, who posted a report on East End Cares' Facebook page Saturday morning. This is just the tip of an iceberg of hidden devastation. There has been a lack of information provided to the outside world and minimal communication reaching the thousands who are suffering in cold, dark, conditions, Mr. Lydon said.

     Several Montauk residents quickly organized East End Cares to help victims after the Oct. 29 storm struck the Northeast. Both the Sag Harbor and Montauk Fire Departments sent teams to stricken areas on Saturday.

     "Imagine being on the 20th floor in pitch black and not knowing what's going on," said Melissa Berman, a writer and filmmaker from Montauk. With a recent estimate of six weeks until the electric infrastructure is rebuilt in some areas, she said it was critical to get supply lists from on the ground, "as they are changing all the time."

     No stranger to disaster relief, Ms. Berman spent time in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. "It was just horrible," she said.

     While in Haiti, Ms. Berman met Alison Thompson, who is running a major rescue and relief operation in the Rockaways, and reporting on it via social media. The women became close friends, and Ms. Berman wound up supporting a women's clinic that Ms. Thompson founded there.

     "Does the world know how bad it is here?" asked Ms. Thompson on Twitter yesterday from Rockaway, Queens. Top needs include medication, she posted. The power won't be on for a month at least, she said. "We need to get these people out."

     "We served over 4,000 tired, freezing, local, distressed people today and are expecting around 6,000 to 8,000 tomorrow," Ms. Thompson posted on Friday.

     Ms. Thompson described "a kind lady with six kids with no heat, food, water, power, or anywhere to go, who doesn't want to take too much aid in case others need it." She also posted about "a sick lady with diabetes and heart problems" who "cries in desperation about her daily struggle of climbing 16 floors of stairs a few times a day to find water and food in a freezing apartment with no power."

     Ralph Perricelli, a Montauk resident who works in Canarsie, Brooklyn, as a New York City fireman, was able to help 1,200 homeless firefighters from the area by posting their needs on the East End Cares Facebook page.  

     "Yesterday was the worst day yet," said Dan Gualtieri of Amagansett, who is also involved with East End Cares. He said that the only hot food the residents of the area had was soup brought by Mark Smith and Joe Realmuto of a restaurant group that runs Nick and Toni's and Rowdy Hall in East Hampton and several others. The two men, who help with a South Fork soup kitchen on most Wednesdays, could not do so because of power outages after Sandy, and, instead, took to the Rockaways.

     Mr. Lydon said he became involved when he learned that firefighters whom he knew from the World Trade Center area from his days of living there and owning a restaurant in the neighborhood had lost everything to Sandy's storm surge. He took his own truck and a generator, picked up Ms. Thompson at the airport, and has been there ever since. He slept in a command center without power in the St. Francis de Sales Parish in Belle Harbor, Queens, through Wednesday's northeaster. During the worst of it, he, Ms. Thompson, and others evacuated an 80-year-old man in what he called complete blackout conditions.

     "I'm living here for the last nine days," Ms. Thompson said yesterday. "Freezing, no heat, no way to get information to people. . . . We need intel on the ground, it is crucial." The government is trying, she said, so are aid groups, but the challenge is tremendous. "Volunteers are needed, especially midweek," she said.

     Ms. Thompson's Twitter feed, @lightxxx, is her main way of communicating while on rescue efforts.

     "The media comes to staging areas," she said in an interview Friday, "but 10 blocks to the south, people have nothing. We run out of food and water daily." She warned that the media should be very accurate in what it reports. She said that "specific regions and blocks need to be mentioned." There is a lot of bad information out there, she said.

     Mr. Gualtieri said that East End Cares can help "connect the dots with those on the ground." There is a Facebook forum, and the group has organized trips for those who want to lend a hand. The plan is to have a public meeting or online forum for prospective volunteers as well.

     "Desperately needed" donations, according to Ms. Berman, can be made online, and updates can be found on the Facebook page. Clothes are not needed right now, she said. Food is always needed, and baby supplies would be welcomed.

     "Everyone is needed," said Ms. Thompson. Paddlers for Humanity is accepting donations on behalf of East End Cares on its Web site. The money will go to on-the-ground efforts.

     "We can't keep waiting for the government to act while people freeze," Ms. Berman posted online on Sunday morning. She has asked that people sign a petition to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo asking for warming stations with heaters and generators. There is no power, no gas to run generators, no communication except for volunteers spreading the word via Facebook and Twitter or on cellphones from a powerless command center, she wrote.

     East End Cares hopes to raise $60,000 by Monday night to purchase 100,000 "body warmers," of the kind used by the military and recommended as an immediate solution to keep people from freezing or asphyxiating from warming themselves with gas stoves. Also needed from the government, she said, is a sanitation system.

     "The flip side of the horror show on the ground is this incredible show of love," said Ms. Thompson.

     "Everything you do is so meaningful," said Ms. Berman. "People showing up says, 'We care about you.' "

     "Even a hug, you've made a difference," she said.

    A $5,000 cash reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the hit-and-run driver whose car struck a pedestrian on Main Street in Amagansett Tuesday evening and left him bleeding profusely by the side of the road. The victim, John Judge of Amagansett, was rushed to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

    Shortly before 8 p.m. East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stan­zione, who was on his way to Astro Pizza to pick up dinner, found Mr. Judge lying next to a parked truck across the street, on the eastbound shoulder. Tony Lupo, an owner of the restaurant, said that Mr. Judge, who was a regular at his restaurant, had had dinner there and had just left. He was crossing the street “to go to bed,” said Mr. Lupo, when he was struck. Mr. Judge, 61, lived on the south side of the highway.

    Mr. Stanzione said yesterday that he had parked on the north side of Main Street, in front of Body Tech and just east of of the pizza place. For some reason, he said, he glanced across the street and saw a huddled shape on the ground.

    He thought at first that one of the decorative Halloween scarecrows that have been put up on posts along Amagansett Main Street had fallen, but he walked across the street to see.

    The man lying there was clearly unconscious, Mr. Stanzione said. Having left his cellphone at home, he ran into Astro Pizza to call 911.

    “Dominick came inside the pizza place and said there was a man on the street, and said, ‘Let me call 911,’ ” said Mr. Lupo. “And I said okay. John had just left my place. And I said, ‘It’s not John, is it?’ because he knows John. He said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know who it is.’ ”

    Tom Field, an Amagansett Fire Department emergency medical technician whose house is just a few doors away from Astro Pizza, “arrived within 30 seconds,” said Mr. Stanzione, and immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The rest of the E.M.S. squad got there at “amazing speed,” Mr. Stanzione said, and “worked incredibly hard.”

    “I just wish it turned out better,” said the councilman, a member of the Amagansett Fire Department who also serves as an Amagansett ambulance driver.

    Mr. Judge was well known to the shopkeepers of Main Street. He was a handyman who worked for Elaine Monroe, the owner of Decorum, who was traveling and could not be reached for comment.

    “He used to cross the street all the time,” said Connie Dankmyer, the owner of Nellie’s, which neighbors Decorum to the west, to get to the shops on the north side.

    “He was very kind,” Ms. Dankmyer said. “A very sweet man. He would help you out in a minute. If I needed anything, he would always be there.”

    “We’re appealing to the driver or any of the occupants of the car to come forward,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Edward Ecker said yesterday, “or anybody who has any information that would lead us to the vehicle.”

    According to the chief, the eastbound vehicle that struck Mr. Judge sustained a good deal of front-end damage. Several pieces fell off the fleeing car; possibly enough, said the chief, to enable detectives to identify the make and model.

    Police closed the area to traffic for several hours Tuesday night. “We did an extensive crime scene investigation,” the chief said. “We brought in the Suffolk County Police Identification team as well as the county’s crime lab.

    “This is very sad,” said Joey Lupo, Tony Lupo’s son, who was cooking at Astro Pizza Tuesday night. “Words can’t even describe it. One minute I cooked him dinner, the next minute he’s lying in the road dead. It’s heartbreaking. He was such a sweet man. It’s terrible, to be left there to die. It’s not right.”

    This is the second East End hit-and-run fatality this year. On July 9, Sister Jacqueline Walsh was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Rose Hill Road in Water Mill.

    It is also the second pedestrian fatality in Amagansett this year. Jeffrey Ahn, 17, died on June 23 on Old Stone Highway after being struck by the side mirror of a livery van. The youth had been walking with his back to traffic on that narrow road, police said at the time.

    There were apparently no witnesses to Tuesday night’s incident. Detectives have asked that anyone with information call 537-7575, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

With reporting by Joanne Pilgrim and Christopher Walsh

      A man was killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident on Main Street in Amagansett a little before 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

      The victim, John Judge, 61, of Amagansett, was found just east of Hedges Lane, lying bleeding on the eastbound shoulder of Route 27 by East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who had stopped to get pizza from Astro’s Pizza. Mr. Judge was rushed to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

      A person interviewed at the scene on Tuesday night said that Mr. Judge may have just left the pizza restaurant when he was struck crossing the road.

      According to a statement released by the East Hampton Town Police, the vehicle involved in Mr. Judge’s death left the scene. It would have sustained noticeable damage on the front end.

      This is the second East End hit and run fatality this year. On July 9, Sister Jacqueline Walsh was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on Rose Hill Road in Water Mill.

       It is also the second pedestrian fatality in the town of East Hampton this year. Jeffrey Ahn, 17, was killed by a on June 23 on Old Stone Highway when he was struck by the mirror of a livery van. Mr. Ahn had been walking with his back to traffic on that narrow road, police said at the time.

       Police are appealing to the driver to turn himself or herself in. Anyone with information can call 537-7575.

    Every seat was taken at a public hearing Monday in Sagaponack Village Hall as concerned residents, real estate agents, and developers had their say on a proposed amendment to lot coverage restrictions. All of them were angry at the prospect of an increase in setback requirements for playing courts, letting the board know in no uncertain terms that tennis courts increase property value.

    Enzo Morabito, a real estate broker who does not live in the village, had warned residents about the amendment with a mailing to post office boxes. He called it “taking wealth from someone’s property,” saying that the inability to build a tennis court would result in “a substantial reduction in what that property is worth . . . up to a million dollars.” Almost everyone who spoke agreed.

    Mayor Donald Louchheim told the crowd the new law was aimed at those wanting to develop every square inch with every possible amenity. “We have seen . . . more and more intense development of each property,” he said. “Patios are gigantic now. Tennis courts take up a lot of room.”

    Not every lot can have a tennis court, said the mayor, “especially those under three acres,” and a compromise was necessary in order to limit the number of “reckless amenities.” He said adjacent communities had the same setbacks as proposed, some of them even more restrictive.

    Some in the crowd who have plans in place for tennis courts asked for either grandfathering or extensions of their permits. Armen Hovnanian, who closed on his house in April, was among them. He said he had spent time and money on plans, wetlands waivers, and approvals.

    Mr. Louchheim said courts that were graded and flagged before the law takes effect would have no worries. At the end of the meeting, after the room was clear, he said there would be no grandfathering.    

    David Schoenthal bought land with every intention of building a tennis court, he said, though his permit has expired. He would not have bought the lot at all, he said, without the option to build a tennis court. Phillip Davis, another resident, said he’d once had a permit for a court but decided he didn’t want one, and now was concerned that the law would lower his property value.

    Michael Davis, a local builder, suggested that the proposed new setbacks were directed at noise, and said they would make little difference in that regard. He had an employee read out a long letter from an acoustical engineering and consulting company stating that “if noise reduction is a goal, this is not appropriate.” The company recommended sunken courts as an effective noise abatement.

    Michael Haines, a resident who had just arrived from Palm Beach to find Mr. Morabito’s card in his P.O. box, said the board should focus on real grievances. “Cutting lawns,” he said. “That is real noise. My neighbor of 20 years has a tennis court, it has never bothered me.”

    “I strongly request that you reconsider this without damaging property values,” said Kris Torkan, a builder from Nassau County. Absent the option to build a tennis court, he said, “absolute financial loss” was assured on a parcel he is about to close on.

    Mr. Louchheim suggested that the village zoning board of appeals would be able to work with hardship cases.

    Zachary Vichinsky, a resident and real estate broker, said the proposed amendment was “already altering decisions to purchase in this village.”

    “Where are the people in support of this law?” several people shouted out from their seats. Barbara Albright, a resident, was the only voice to respond. “We want more families to join the community,” she said. “Buying it to sell it is a business venture . . . I don’t want to see a bunch of tennis courts.”

    People also complained that the village had not told them about the proposal. The mayor noted that the village has a Web site where it posts minutes, announcements, legal notices, and draft laws. “The agendas are on there too, when we’re caught up,” he said. The amendment has been discussed for several meetings, he added, and only reporters, he said, have been in attendance.

    After the crowd was gone and the five trustees were talking among themselves, William Barbour observed that “not one person said anything about wanting to play tennis. It is all about money . . . They don’t want it near their house, but why should the neighbor have to look at it?”

    “I am in favor of leaving this just the way it is,” Mr. Barbour said. “Not having a tennis court is suffering? Walk through Sloan-Kettering Hospital if you want to see people suffering.”

    Joy Sieger expressed sympathy for people who had believed they could build a tennis court but could have that right “snatched away.”

    “There was an element of greed here,” said Mr. Louchheim. “They don’t care about the money . . . they can sink the court or tear off a wing of their house. All of these people care about their homes being devalued.”

    The board then directed the village attorney to redraft the portion of the law pertaining to tennis courts to exempt the proposed setbacks for courts that are sunk four feet or more, providing that site-plan review addresses noise. A resolution to adopt the new version will be presented at the next meeting, on Nov. 19. A public hearing will be held on Dec. 17. The new version of the law will be available online next week at sagaponackvillage.org/laws.

   It’s that time of year again. The winter birds are beginning to show up, the ospreys have left, and the cormorants are lingering on their way south because the fishing is so good. The last of the asters and goldenrods are peaking prior to their flowers turning into dandelion-like heads with tiny seeds on parachutes that can float for miles before settling down. Most of the trees are still green, but it’s only a matter of days before their leaves find other colors to sport, the air grows crisp, and suppers are eaten in the dark.

    A lot of people go to New England to view the red, orange, and yellow foliages. I prefer to stay here and take my chances. In some years the fall colors here match those of the Appalachians, in most years not. This could be one of those years when they do.

    The first to turn are the dogwoods, followed by the tupelos, which also become a burgundy red, followed closely by the orangey reds of the swamp maples. Each year, some of the prettiest of the latter two species can be seen along Swamp Road in East Hampton’s Northwest, while the dogwoods range throughout the whole of Northwest and parts of northern Amagansett. The stand of tupelos along Cranberry Hole Road at the intersection of Bendigo Road in Amagansett is also sure to please. Aptly named Euonymus purpurea, the euonymuses or burning bushes, native to the south but not to here, never fail to knock your eyes out from the sides of the roads as you drive past. The way global warming is progressing, soon we’ll be calling them natives.

    Our most ubiquitous oak, the scarlet oak, has the most impressive fall foliage of the oaks. The yellows and reds of the sassafras can dazzle the eyes here and there, while hickories turn mostly yellow. While traveling Old Northwest Road, Northwest Road, Bull Path, Two Holes of Water Road, Alewife Brook Road, and Springy Banks Road, don’t look down — the understory huckleberry-blueberry layer lost its luster and most of its leaves weeks ago — but look up at the oaks, hickories, and sassafras.

    The Stony Hill woods of Amagansett are the most diverse and richest in terms of tree species on the South Fork. You will find all of the above named trees there, in addition to American beech, which turns yellow, and sweet birch, which turns yellow and red.

    But it’s not just the trees and the wildflowers that make for a pleasant country drive, bike ride, or walk along South Fork roads in October. The hues of the grasses, if more subtle, can be just as spirit-lifting. Fall grasses are not green like summer and spring grasses. Little bluestem, which may be our most common native grass, is a combination of yellows, blues, reds, and purples, most of which remain that way through the rest of fall and much of winter. Another grass, purple love grass, is my favorite and in this century has become almost as common as the former. Fields and road shoulders, such as the median of the Sunrise Highway, have monoclonal stands of it — a low red-purple haze delights the eye of the passerby.

    Salt marsh edges are very colorful at this time, as well. Spartina grasses, cordgrass, and salt marsh hay become tawny, the reds of the salicornia, or pickleweed, give the marsh a patchwork appearance. The voluminous clusters of bright whites of the groundsel bush, or sea myrtle, flowers fill out this crazy quilt of colors. The edges of Accabonac Harbor in Springs and Scallop Pond in North Sea are two of the best sites for salt marsh colors each fall. It is not by coincidence that some of Jackson Pollock’s canvases are crazy-quilted tapestry in the same way — the Pollock-Krasner House on Fireplace Road has one of the most exquisite salt marsh panoramas on Long Island.

    Be green, save on gasoline, poke around here on the South Fork to feast your eyes on nature’s autumn splendor. When you do, ask yourself, why are there so many different colors and patterns and why are they either vivid or subdued, but all the while so pleasing to the senses? Fall colors have little function with respect to the plants responsible for them, while the colors of spring and summer are those underlying vital plant processes — flowering, fruiting, and photosynthesis. Except for the primates, other mammals don’t perceive them, while birds do. It is the very foundation of aesthetics based on color.

    What is the value of art other than the fact that it pleases us such that magnificent edifices are designed to exhibit it the world over? It doesn’t become more aesthetic with age, but only much more valuable economically. It is what it is. Irrespective of politics, the antithesis of aesthetics, art and nature are there for all of us. Our five senses are required for survival, but art and nature make survival worthwhile and pleasurable. Don’t you agree?

    The East Hampton community reacted with shock and dismay this week when word spread of the apparent suicide of a 16-year-old East Hampton High School student on Saturday. East Hampton Town police, who received a call a little after 9 p.m., found David H. Hernandez at his family’s house on Wooded Oak Lane. He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

    “We received a report of an unconscious, unresponsive male,” Detective Lt. Christopher Anderson said on Tuesday.

    As many as 750 people were estimated at a wake, and almost 450 signed the guest book, at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Tuesday night, in a show of sympathy and support for his grieving family. The parking lot was full, and cars were parked up and down Pantigo Road.

     A long line of friends, teachers, students, and school district officials waited in silence to enter the funeral home. A meeting of the East Hampton School Board Tuesday night was cut short to allow members to attend. David’s photograph was posted at the entrance to the funeral home, with his name in large, plain type. Inside, the sound of a woman’s sobbing filled the air.

    The town police log registered the Saturday night call as an “attempted suicide.” Detective Anderson said there did “not appear to have been any foul play.”

    In response to comment in the community that David was a victim of bullying at school, the detective said, “We have no actual information to support that theory.” He declined to add further details, saying, “As in any death investigation, it takes an amount of time to make a final determination on the cause of death.” The body was taken to the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office.

     On Monday, Adam S. Fine, the high school principal, addressed potential emotional distress among students, reading a statement that said, “Please remember. You always have people who care about you here at the high school. . . . Please let your classroom teacher know or any adult in the building if you feel you need to talk to anyone.”

    On Tuesday afternoon, representatives of Joe’s Project, an organization that supports those affected by suicide, met with students. Approximately 91 attended.

    Tuesday night’s school board meeting had begun with 30 seconds of silence, after which Richard Burns, district superintendent, read a statement that had been posted on the district’s Web site.

    “This has been a tragedy. We are grieving for David, his family, and the community. We are continuing our thorough evaluation of this sad and complex situation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”

    Earlier in the day, a quickly organized bake sale by students and faculty raised $4,400 for the family.

    The school observed a moment of silence yesterday morning, and has set up a memorial wall for flowers and tributes.

    A funeral Mass was said Wednesday morning at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton by the Rev. Steven Grozio of the parish’s Hispanic Apostolate.

    Following the Mass, mourners gathered on the church lawn as David’s coffin was carried to a hearse by six young men. As the hearse pulled away, a woman who was identified as David’s mother collapsed in grief and was carried by two of the pall-bearers across Buell Lane. Burial was private

    Over a dozen whales ranging from 3 to 12 feet have been spotted around Sag Harbor, in the form of painted graffiti. The unknown artist or artists have been at work since early this month, when neon-colored whales began to appear on various buildings throughout the village, and even between Larry Rivers’s “Legs” sculpture on the side of Vered and Janet Lehr’s house.

    Other victims have included the Old Whalers Church, Apple Bank, WLNG, the John Jermain Memorial Library, and the vacant Schiavoni plumbing building. Some of the property owners or managers have let the smiling creatures stick around, others are less accommodating, and some are quite concerned.

    At the John Jermain Memorial Library, for example, it took a dangerous nighttime climb upon and relocation of two-story scaffolding to paint the four whales that appeared on protective construction sheathing.

    Other ground-level work, such as the bright orange, head-phoned whale that was reported last week by WLNG radio station on Redwood Road, has been met with a chuckle. “You got whaled,” is the new term about town, said Chris Buckhout, who reported the incident to police.

    Gary Sapiane, the station’s president, took a few seconds off the air on “Swap and Shop” Tuesday to say “I think it looks smart with the headphones on.” Mr. Buckhout added his own art to the design, in the form of a bumper sticker that said, “Another WLNG Listener.”

    “I think we will keep it for a while,” he said, thankful that the whale is on wood, which can be easily repainted.

    Anthony Baker, an employee at the Getty Station, reported a 12-foot blue whale with orange spots on the rear of the Getty Station the same day. “I think it’s cool,” he said on Tuesday. “My boss doesn’t know about it yet.”

    According to New York State penal law, each act of making graffiti is a class A misdemeanor, defined in part by etching, painting, covering, drawing upon or otherwise placing of a mark upon [. . .] without the express permission of the owner or operator of said property.”

    Sag Harbor Village Sergeant Paul Fabiano is on the case, and has been comparing “tags” often used by graffiti artists. Anyone with information about the vandalism has been asked to call the village’s police department.

 

    There you were, early in the morning on a foggy day about 10 miles offshore of Montauk, slowly trolling for tuna, when from out of the mist came the sound of human voices chanting in a kind of hypnotic drone. How strange.

    The scene was otherwordly, but became commonplace in the early 1980s. Back then, by virtue of the subtle vicissitudes of the Gulf Stream, its swirling eddies and meanders, as well as the abundance of forage fish in our neck of the maritime woods, giant bluefin tuna were feeding well within range of Montauk boats.

    Bluefin in the 300 to 1,200-pound range were caught with regularity. When landed, the fattiness of their flesh was assessed by sushi connoisseurs. Auctions attended by knowing buyers were held nearly every day in Montauk Harbor. The highest bidders carefully iced their fish, loaded them into air-freight containers, and shipped them to the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. 

    It was a high-flying time in the growing market for sushi-grade tuna. Fishermen received upward of $10,000 each for their bluefin catches.

    The offshore chants came to mind on Sept. 2, the day the Rev. Sun Myung Moon died in South Korea. Mr. Moon, founder of the Unification Church, a businessman and self-proclaimed messiah, was known for officiating at the simultaneous marriage of thousands of couples and for founding The Washington Times newspaper. Much of his success stemmed from popularizing sushi in the United States, which became his mission after having a “revelation” while fighting a giant bluefin off Gloucester, Mass.

    Happy World was the name of his tuna fishing and shipping business, which began in Gloucester, a city whose name was and is synonymous with commercial fishing. Over time, the city became uneasy with the cult-like trappings that accompanied the economic boom resulting from Mr. Moon’s revelation. In 1982, Mr. Moon was convicted of falsifying federal tax returns and served 13 months at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn.

    But his vision spread to Montauk and other coastal ports, where crews of his disciples took 25-foot-long open boats to sea with handlines to catch bluefin. Mr. Moon’s fish-packing venture for species other than tuna, called Internationnal Oceanic Enterprises, had a business arrangement with Mid-Atlantic Seafood Buyers Ltd., which had a dock on East Lake Drive in Montauk.

    “During the tedious waiting for a tuna to strike, the people complain and fight, but when the tuna bites they are instantly united as one. I have never seen such unification! That is the unification spirit I am trying to promote, so rather than just talk about it, I particularly want Unification people to come from all over the world and experience it,” Mr. Moon said on July 13, 1980, reading from a description of his vision titled “The Way of Tuna,” which he presented to followers at Belvedere, his estate in Tarrytown, N.Y.

    “I view tuna as an offering, and I am in a position as a chief priest to offer it to God. I seldom eat a tuna I have caught because I see it as a sacrifice for the sake of mankind. In the Old Testament the priests killed the burnt offerings on the altar, and blood was shed,” Mr. Moon said.

    “I think that if [fishermen] loved America the way they do fishing, it would have become the Kingdom of Heaven a long time ago. I always think that if Americans have that kind of heart and soul, why not harness it for kingdom building?”

    “This year I have saved and numbered the tail fins of the tuna I have caught,” Mr. Moon told his followers. “When they are preserved, each state center will have one. When people look at those fins, they can feel they are looking at the future food messiah who will solve the food problems of the world. Since I am so enthused and have so many plans about the ocean, anyone who comes to the Unification Church cannot help but pay attention to the ocean. Would you like to go to sea?” he asked.

    Mr. Moon said he had received his calling from Jesus at the age of 16. He came to see bluefin tuna as the marine embodiment of Abel, the shepherd son of Adam and Eve.

    “For seven years, I have been going to the ocean and praying out there, early in the morning and late at night. . . . When you think of the ocean you think about the movie ‘Jaws’ don’t you? Now, instead of thinking a shark will use you as his food, you can think you will use the shark to feed the world. Not only men, but women will do it also. That is a longstanding goal of mine.”

    Mr. Moon went on to lay out his plan to buy up naval vessels rendered obsolete following the end of the cold war and the defeat of communism, a goal close to his heart. “Naval vessels will be used by us as mother boats harvesting resources of the sea. An aircraft carrier is like a floating island. . . . We will have radios, so I can command our worldwide fleet from one flagship, directing each ship around the world.”

    In Montauk, his boats docked at the Offshore Sports Marina on West Lake Drive. A Happy World buyer had an office there. Norma Bock, who runs the marina today, was there back in the ’80s, and has fond memories of those days.

    On Monday, she recalled that the boats were built by Mr. Moon’s subsidiary, True World. She remembered Andy, a Happy World buyer whose surname she could not recall. He had married a girl from the Midwest, Ms. Bock recalled, in one of Mr. Moon’s group weddings.

    Tragically, the buyer was killed in a car crash en route to Gloucester after dropping off a container of bluefin tuna bound for Tokyo at Kennedy Airport. Ms. Bock said she attended the funeral in Tarrytown, a ceremony that Mr. Moon and leaders of Happy World flew from Kodiak, Alaska, to attend. “I was happy to be a part of that,” she said.

    “Christian ministers are very interested in their honor and future, but I am crazy about salvation of the world, about how I can feed the world population. How I can help this nation,” Mr. Moon told his disciples on that July day in 1980. “It is a beautiful day today, the best day for tuna fishing. . . ”

 

Southampton Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming defeated Jennifer Maertz by a wide margin in a Democratic primary on Thursday to determine who will represent the party in a bid to unseat State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle in the November 6 general election.



"The voters have spoken loud and clear," Ms. Fleming said after the announcement of preliminary results last night, which showed 79 percent of votes in her favor. "They no longer want to allow their tax dollars to be distributed to the rest of the state," she said.



Unofficial results posted by the Suffolk Board of Elections on Friday had 2,031 votes for Ms. Fleming and 531 for Ms. Maertz.



Mr. LaValle's office issued a statement Friday saying, "No matter who the opponent, I have always run on my record. I am proud of my exceptionally strong record of economic development, job creation, and real property tax relief and proud of the support I have received in the form of endorsements thus far."



"I am proud to have had the ability to deliver legislative and fiscal relief for every part of the district," the statement said.



Ms. Fleming was accompanied by about 30 supporters at the Water's Edge restaurant in East Moriches, picked to be centrally located, or equally inconvenient, to residents of the First Senate District, which stretches 70 miles from Middle Island to Fishers Island and Montauk Point.



"We did it," said Ms. Fleming, upon the concession from Ms. Maertz. She thanked many people including her staff and volunteers, who went door to door with her, and made the calls that she credited for her victory. Also essential to her win, she said, was an endorsement from Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, and her No Bad Apples PAC; Gordon Herr, the chairman of Southampton Democratic Committee, and Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. "Senator Bridget Fleming has a nice ring to it," said Mr. Herr.



"It was an easy choice," said Ms. Tyson of the coalition's endorsement, which gave Ms. Fleming additional staff to use for her campaign. "We really believe in her," She said.



"We have had nine Republican male senators, we need another voice to represent progressives, a community that has not bee heard from. She listens to people, and has been able to negotiate, that is a rare thing," Ms. Tyson said.



Across the bay in Miller Place, Ms. Maertz received the results that she said were "disappointing, of course." In an interview Friday morning, Ms. Maertz said she was also disappointed that "the Democratic turnout was just horrible." The low voter turnout, that she said she heard was around 4 percent, was a "combination of the date and that people seemed to not know there was a primary. We have to find a way to increase people's understanding and importance of voter participation," she said.



"I don't know right now if I will run again," said Ms. Maertz, whose immediate goal is to "take a rest," and then volunteer to support candidates who show dedication and "are running for the right reasons." She will also help to get Representative Tim Bishop re-elected to Congress, and continue her work as chairwoman of the East End Dem Women, a group whose goals include the increased political involvement of women on the East End and in Brookhaven.



Ms. Fleming will now focus on gathering resources and support to outst Mr. LaValle, who has represented the First Senate District since 1976, some 36 years.



"It is no longer okay to take this district for granted," she said, "voters of eastern Suffolk County care deeply about where their tax dollars go. . . . They are not for special interests; they are for us, our families, our education, and our local economy and education."



If elected, Ms. Fleming would become the first woman from Suffolk County to serve as state senator.





 

    The pilot and passenger of a single-engine Mooney airplane that crashed in the woods by East Hampton Airport early Sunday evening were helped to safety by three good Samaritans.

    The pilot, Steven Bochter, and his fiancé, Kim Brillo, were airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center. Both were released on Tuesday.

    The plane crashed about 100 yards east of Daniel’s Hole Road at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday.

    “Something got my attention,” said Michael Norbeck, the manager of Sound Aircraft Services, which is based at the airport. “I looked at the aircraft. I couldn’t hear the power. It was flying under reduced or no power. It banked sharply to the left and disappeared into the trees. We heard the crunching of the trees,” he said. “We knew exactly what it was.”

    “It looked like it was turning really low. It looked like he was doing something for people on the ground,” said Jack Gleeson, 17, who is working at the airport this summer.

    Mr. Norbeck and Mr. Gleeson were standing on the tarmac when the plane went down. Both men began running toward the crash. Mr. Gleeson scaled the 10-foot fence that surrounds most of the airport’s perimeter.

    “He was a lot faster than I was,” Mr. Norbeck said.

    Craig Schum, a bread baker at Levain Bakery in Wainscott, had stopped at the airport, curious about a protest organized by the Quiet Skies Coalition.

    “It happened in front of us,” Mr. Schum said. “It was like an avalanche hitting the trees. Then, boom. I just started running. I had to get over the deer fence,” he said. He got to the top and looked down. “I thought, ‘I shouldn’t jump from here.’ Then I jumped. When I got there, the front of the plane was on fire.”

    Mr. Gleeson and Mr. Schum both arrived at the burning wreckage at about the same time. The two men’s memories of the moment-to-moment events differ slightly. Mr. Bochter had gotten out of the plane, but looked dazed, they said. Mr. Schum remembers pulling Ms. Brillo, who he saw lying half out of the cockpit, away from the wreckage. Mr. Gleeson thought she was already on the ground, a few feet from the cockpit. Both men thought she had not survived.

    “Even when I was carrying her, I thought she was dead,” Mr. Schum said.



    “It was kind of iffy,” said Mr. Gleeson, who will be a senior at East Hampton High School. “I didn’t see too much of her chest rising and falling.”

    That was when Mr. Norbeck arrived. He asked the pilot about the fuel tank. “He said the tank was nearly full.”

    The fire was quickly spreading throughout the plane. The emergency crews had not yet arrived. Mr. Gleeson and Mr. Schum, carrying Ms. Brillo, went toward the fence while Mr. Norbeck guided the pilot in that direction. Once there, the men were able to jack up the bottom of the fence, getting the pilot and passenger to the other side. At that point as the paramedics arrived, it became clear to them that Ms. Brillo was alive.

    The burning wreckage became a fireball, Mr. Schum said, that soon reached the tops of the surrounding trees. The airplane was destroyed.

    “They were very brave,” East Hampton Fire Chief Tom Bono said Wednesday about the three men. Mr. Bono was one of the first on the scene after the pilot and passenger were pulled to safety. “They were heroes for saving those lives. That takes a lot of courage to jump into a fire and save those people.”

    Three brush trucks were called to the scene, along with about 40 to 50 men, Mr. Bono said. “We brought our brush truck and took that to get the flame out,” he said. The Bridgehampton company’s truck soaked down the surrounding area to make sure the fire did not spread, and Sag Harbor’s brush truck stood by.

    “We’ve got an airport apparatus truck on the scene,” he said. It would have been deployed immediately if the crash had occurred on the tarmac.

    Mr. Bochter and Ms. Brillo, who live in Massachusetts, had been bound for Taunton, Mass. From his hospital room on Tuesday, Mr. Bochter declined to comment.

    The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash.