Family, neighbors mourn death of boys killed in storm - USA TODAY

North Salem neighbors comfort each other outside the home where two boys were killed by a falling tree. (Photo: By Shawn Cohen, The Journal News)

10:53AM EDT October 30. 2012 - NORTH SALEM, N.Y. -- The morning after two North Salem boys — one age 11 and the other 13 — died in the wake of Sandy, family and neighbors mourned them.

Jack Baumler, 11, and Michael Robson, 13, died Monday evening when a large tree fell into the family room of the Baumler home on Bonnieview Street in North Salem, authorities said.

Jack Baumler's uncle, Daniel Seymour, spoke with The Journal News this morning outside the home as tears filled his eyes.

"Heaven got two all-stars too soon," Seymour said. "Our faith will comfort us. North Salem has a huge heart and this community wrap its arms around this family. We're asking for prayers and privacy."

Ethan Bogren, a neighbor of the victims, was walking his dog near the scene this morning.

"This neighborhood has never seen anything like this at all," Bogren said. "This hits very close to home for everyone here. You could see neighbors hugging, crying. It's two kids from this street, so it's going to have a big impact."

Bogren said he didn't know the boys closely, but had seen play basketball on the street.

About 90 minutes after the tree struck the Baumler family's home, another 100-foot tree crashed onto the adjacent home of William Butler, whose daughter, Elizabeth Butler was murdered in June 2005.

William Butler was at home with his daughter, Meredith, when the tree crashed.

"I looked out to see emergency vehicles over there," Butler told The Journal News. "Then I heard the cracking start and then, in seconds, the whole tree toppled over on top of the house."

The tree impacted a bedroom where Meredith Butler was and damaged the home's roof, crushed a chimney and one of Butler's cars. Butler told the newspaper he is renting the home.

"I told Meredith that her sister was watching over her because that's one big tree," William Butler said. "She's still our angel."

"At this point, we know that a large tree came crashing through the house, hitting both subjects," said Maj. Michael Kopy, of state police troop K. "They were both pronounced dead at the scene. A third child was taken to Danbury Hospital with injuries that were described as non-life-threatening."

Two other children, ages 15 and 12, were injured. They were treated for minor scrapes and abrasions at the scene.

Baumler's mother was home at the time but not injured.

Deputy Supervisor Peter Kamenstein said the boys were both students at North Salem Middle School. The mother and a sister of one of the boys escaped from the home, he said.

Kopy said the Croton Falls Fire Department arrived to the scene shortly after the tree fell about 7:45 p.m. and valiantly attempted to rescue the children, but that the large size of the tree hampered their efforts. They died almost instantly.

The tree cleaved in half the house it fell onto. The oak, about 100 feet tall and 3 ½ feet in diameter, stood in the back yard about 60 feet from the Baumler family's home. The tree came up at the roots and the top half fell across and through the middle of the house.

The tree showed many saw marks as rescuers sawed off branches after the tree fell. Police tape had been cut down but was still lying on the street side of the property.

A retired NYPD police officer from Pearl River and a Yonkers man also died as the superstorm battered the region with roaring winds and rain, propelled coastal waters over their banks, and shut down trains, buses, bridges and roads.

Jeffrey Chanin, 51, of Pearl River, a retired NYPD officer, was killed and his family injured when a tree fell through the roof of their Robin Street home Monday evening, Orangetown police said. The tree slammed into the rear of the home; authorities were called at 6:32 p.m. Chanin's wife and two others in the home were injured and taken to Nyack Hospital. Their conditions were unknown.

The man, his wife and their three teenage children were sitting together in the family room on the second floor when the tree fell around 6 p.m., said Ray Florida, executive director of Rockland Paramedics Services.

Neighbor Chris Finch, 48, a service manager, told The Journal News/LoHud.com today that he heard a loud noise and about 10 minutes later saw police arriving. He said Chanin was a retired New York City police officer and "a nice guy with a nice family."

Chanin was killed when an enormous tree in the back yard slammed through the roof and flattened a room or extension on one end of the two-story ranch house. The tree trunk split, a stump rose about 25 feet and enormous pieces of the trunk were strewn in the yard.

This morning, drivers were slowing down and looking at the splintered room as they passed the house in a cul-de-sac. No one appeared to be home.

Also Monday, Tiago Ferreria Neto, 54, of Woodland Avenue in Yonkers was killed when his car struck a downed tree on the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh, state police said.

State police said Neto was driving a 1988 Toyota south in the left lane near Jackson Avenue at 7:45 p.m. and struck a large tree that had fallen across the highway from the center median. The car continued down the center embankment and struck several other trees. Neto was pronounced dead at the scene.