Metro

Flood of tears: Bodies of SI boys found after being swept away by Sandy

UNSPEAKABLE GRIEF: Glenda Moore weeps as she and her husband, Damien, approach the thick marshland area in Staten Island where the bodies of their two sons were found by a police search team yesterday. Police said she spent the night of the storm outdoors, looking for the boys, after her pleas to local residents for help were buffed. (AP)

The nightmare that began when raging storm waters ripped two little Staten Island boys from their mother’s arms reached its tragic conclusion yesterday when their bodies were found in marshlands close to where they disappeared.

Glenda Moore wailed uncontrollably after cops showed up at her Great Kills home yesterday and delivered the grim news.

The short lives of Brandon, 2, and Connor, 4, ended in murky water, under debris and trees toppled by the storm. They were found about 20 yards apart at around 10 a.m. by cops in wet suits using shovels and pitchforks to clear the thick brush.

“It’s a shock for everybody right now,” a family friend said outside the Brooklyn home where Moore retreated to the comfort of family members. “She’s in pain.”

Moore and her husband, Damien — a city sanitation worker who had been in Brooklyn during the hurricane — stopped at a funeral home to make arrangements for the boys, described by a friend as “the joy of their lives.’’

Brandon and Connor were separated from their mother on Monday night as she frantically tried to lead them to safety, away from raging floodwaters brought by Hurricane Sandy.

“Terrible, absolutely terrible,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “It compounds all the tragic aspects of this horrific event.”

Moore’s Ford Explorer had gotten stuck when she was separated from her boys, police said.

Officials said Moore became frightened when the storm hit, and she rushed out of the house en route to her mother’s home in Brooklyn.

But the SUV, which she packed with a diaper bag, Halloween costumes and decorations, stalled along Father Capodanno Boulevard as the street began to flood.

After a panicked call to her husband, Moore grabbed Brandon and Connor and fled the SUV, but the rising water caused her to lose her grip as the boys drifted helplessly out of her reach.

Cops said Moore banged on the doors of nearby houses, desperately seeking help. But the people who answered turned her away. She had to ride out the storm outside and got no help until hours later, when rescuers found her clinging to a post on a porch.

Cops found the boys about 30 yards off the corner of McLaughlin Street and Father Capodanno Boulevard, law-enforcement sources said.

A neighbor said the family had been trying to move to Brooklyn in the weeks before the storm.

“The tolls are so high, and they both work there,” said neighbor Anthony Monti, 72. “Everyone in the neighborhood likes them. They’re really nice people. I’m going to light a candle when I go to church for those two boys.”

The family friend in Brooklyn said: “Keep them in your prayers. They’re going to need it. They were joyful kids, very happy.”

Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Joe Tacopino