River ice rips trees from Breezy Point property

A man in Breezy Point has lost hundreds of trees on his riverfront property after garage-sized chunks of river iceslammed into them.

John Anderson said it ishis worst fear come true.

He and his wifewent to the shoreline Wednesday night and saw enormous chunks of ice littering theirproperty where the trees used to stand.

"When we walk down there all we see are just huge blocks of ice, and nothing," Anderson said. "I just have an empty stomach."

Heblames the province's shoddy icebreaking for the problem.He said the Amphibexmachines broke a fraction of the ice they normally do.

They just did a narrow channel down the river and they left these huge ice sheets," he said. "So instead of having a block of ice the size of a 45-gallon drum, you had a block of ice the size of a garage hitting the tree.

"Fifty thousand pounds of ice would just take the tree right out."

Anderson estimates he has lost $100,000in property value.

"All those trees are gone because they didn't break the ice properly," he said.

"You know I'm just perplexed that incompetence has done so much damage to my property."

Anderson saidhe's not sure whether he can go after the municipality or the province for the damage.