Rough weather kills Albanian

NEW YORK, March 1 – In a typical snow day last week at Central Park were signs of the dangers like power failures and minor inconveniences such as snowstorms tend to overlook: fallen tree limbs, cordoned off by police tape.
Elmaz Qyra, 46, a busboy who had just gotten off work at the New York Athletic Club, was walking alone through Central Park shortly before 3:30 p.m., when he stepped under an American elm tree near 69th Street.
Qyra, a father of two and a native of Albania who came to the United States in 1998, was struck in the head and killed by a branch that snapped and fell.
The winter storm that walloped the Northeast last week left hundreds of thousands without power from New Jersey to Maine.
Following Qyra’s death, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department took the unusual step of advising New Yorkers to avoid city parks that evening. A day later an advisory on the department’s Web site urged people to use caution in parks and near street trees. In Central Park, a total of 26 trees fell, and at least 12 other trees were damaged, some by falling limbs.
The 46-year-old pedestrian who was struck and killed by a 100-pound tree branch in Central Park emigrated ten years ago from Albania and is survived by a wife and two kids.
“It was his dream to come to America and buy a home and provide a better life for his family,” said his supervisor Cesar Zuzunaga. “He was always talking about his family and he was family to us here.”