A Bronx father of 13 whose body was found yesterday floating at a City Island marina just hours after Hurricane Irene tore through the area may be the city’s only storm-related fatality, officials said.
José Sierra, 68, a plumber, arrived at the Sunset Marina at around 8 a.m., at the height of the storm, and waved to the its owner as he checked on his prized 16-passenger boat, which he’d purchased just last week.
The marina owner found his body at about 4:40 p.m.
“He was a fisherman, and he died doing what he loves,” said his heartbroken daughter Carmen Sierra.
“He was a self-made man. Everybody knows him for his kindness and his charity. After fishing, he would just give out the fish to people. He was a beautiful man.”
His cousin Denise Gonzalez, said, “He helped every house on the block for free. He did lots of plumbing for free.”
In Rockland County, a 50-year-old good Samaritan was electrocuted after he rushed to help a father and son who were injured by a downed live wire.
The dad, 43, and his 6-year-old boy were checking out the damage near their Spring Valley home when they were shocked.
David Reichenberg, a father of four, rushed over to help and was killed.
“He was a fantastic man and husband. It was just like him to have done that without thinking,” said his stepmother, Lillian Carleen.
“David was caring, he was such a good father.”
The boy was critically hurt while his dad was in stable condition last night.
There were other storm-related fatalities in the area.
On Long Island, John Rocco, 68, drowned around 4 p.m. in Shirley after going out windsurfing.
And in Westchester, one man died after the inflatable boat he and four others were in capsized.
Rescue crews pulled them out of the Croton River near the Croton-Harmon Metro-North station at around 8 p.m., but the victim died at a hospital, the Journal News reported.