Long Islanders: Now two weeks of power woes

A front loader works to remove sand and debris as night falls on the Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. / AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

NEW YORK As the power outages on Long Island drag on, New Yorkers railed Sunday against the utility that has lagged behind others in restoring power, criticizing its slow pace as well as a dearth of information.

The lack of power restoration for a relative few in the densely populated region at the heart of the storm reinforced Sandy's fractured effect on the area: tragic and vicious to some, merely a nuisance to others.

Play Video

Brooklyn residents want answers in Sandy aftermath

Play Video

Some veterans struggle as superstorm victims

Perhaps none of the utilities has drawn criticism as widespread, or as harsh, as the Long Island Power Authority. About 76,000 of the homes and businesses it serves were still without power early Monday.

As outages enter their third week, LIPA said it has dropped its policy that forces customers to get a house inspection before their power is restored, CBS Station WCBS reports.

"That should help those homes get power more quickly and one less step for the homeowners," said Michael Hervey, the utility's Chief Operating Officer.

But some residents say that's not enough.

"We sleep with insulated underwear, sweatpants, sweatshirts and three quilt covers," said Marilyn Cashdan from Baldwin Harbor. "No one cares about us."

LIPA has acknowledged that customers aren't getting the information they need about restoring power partly because of an outdated information technology system that it is updating. Executives said Sunday they were working on setting up information centers near the most heavily-damaged areas.

"We certainly understand the frustration that's out there," Hervey said in a conference call late Sunday. But he added that the storm had been worse than expected, and the power was coming back rapidly "compared to the damage that's been incurred."

"'They're working on it, they're working on it' - that would be their common response," Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said Sunday, describing LIPA's interaction with his office. He said LIPA has failed to answer even simple questions from its customers and that the magnitude of the storm wasn't an excuse.

• Veterans compare Sandy's damage to war zone
• Some vets still struggling with Sandy aftermath
• Delays in restoring power after Sandy anger many
• Sick, frail struggle most in storm's aftermath
• Volunteers help the Rockaways following superstorm
• Frustrated residents protest outside NY utility

By comparison, Con Edison reports 1,469 customers without power in New York City and Westchester County.

In New Jersey, PSE&G reports 99.9 percent of the 1.7 million customers impacted by Sandy have had their power restored. In a press release the utility said 19 customers remain without power, and 259 customers affected by last week's nor-easter remain without service.

Jersey Central Power & Light has restored power to all but 3,345 customers by Monday morning. The utility said customers on barrier islands along the Jersey shore will be without power indefinitely because homes there are too damaged to have electricity restored and are currently uninhabitable.

The lack of power has proven dangerous in many ways. Police say a New Cassel, N.Y., woman poisoned her family with toxic fumes by running a generator inside her house.

Newsday reports that 45-year-old Judith Edouard-Neus was arraigned Saturday on charges including reckless endangerment, after bringing a generator into her home on Friday and turning it on before leaving for work.

Police said say that when she returned home, her four children aged 1, 3, 5 and 7 were dizzy and vomiting. There were also two women in their 70s in the home, one of whom was unconscious. The victims were taken to hospitals for treatment.

"The Last Big Chunk" to Solve on Staten Island

On Sunday Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited with disaster-relief workers in Staten Island's Midland Beach neighborhood, which is still devastated two weeks after Sandy hit.

Napolitano said "a lot of progress" had been made since the storm hit and especially since her last visit 10 days earlier. "It seems like a different place," she said. "You can really tell the difference."

• no previous page
• next

1/2

[sandiegopete]

I suspect a large part of the problems being experienced on Long Island, and other storm damaged areas, are the result of antiquated systems and reduction of service personnel by utilities.

Our nation's infrastructure continues to deteriorate and there is no reason to believe any action will be taken to correct that problem. People do not want governments to improve infrastructure if such action will increase taxes. People do not want to pay for infrastructure improvement.
Corporations do not want to pay to improve their infrastructure because that would reduce the profits they report and make it more difficult for executives to retain their large pay raises. And both government and private employers reduce their workforce in order to retain enough money to continue the high public and private salaries of the people who run the government agencies and private companies.

It all boils down to money and everybody want's the money and nobody want's the responsibility.

[JonnyChepe]

ABC reported that Obama looked presidential and was in control of the FEMA response.....This report must be wrong. New York and Nee Jersey are back to normal. FORWARD!!!!!

[raymailhot]

These tragedies are obviously more than our federal government can correct over night. Like the katrina debacle it is the locals that fix the place up and it takes time. The extent of damage is exacerbated by bad policy, but the quick turn around is a function of the state and local communities. After this storm I believe the only thing lacking is an apology to President Bush for all the nonsense thrown at him by the press or the democrats that were really the ones responsible for their communities rebuild.

[opedanderson2]

So where is your guy CBS? And his fat traitor buddy? Or Mr. Soda ban?

The Savior is out playing golf, no doubt.

Don't worry, he's laughing it up at your expense Long Islanders.....

[rwsmith29456]

Sorry, but I found out that when EVERYTHING is messed up, especially in such a widespread disaster like a hurricane, it's not just a matter of going out and stringing some new wires and replacing some transformers. Everybody can't get their power back at the same time either. After a serious hurricane, trees were down all around and we said, 'No problem, they'll clear the roads soon.' Well, the road equipment got wrecked along with everything else so we had to wait a lot longer than we thought.

[Davisrad]

Wasn't there a group of electrical workers from Alabama or someplace down south that was turned away from donating their assistance because they weren't "union" workers? The NY area electrical power companies deserve all the lambasting they get - maybe next time they won't be so picky as to who's good enough to help them out.

[varigdc10]

YES

[IPonUall2]

Have you seen the electrical wiring in Alabama?

[The_Libertarian]

LIPA is a union run, government mandated monopoly. They can't be fired and they can't go out of business. Kinda like the DMV.

You don't honestly think they care all that much, do you?

[earlysaid]

LIPA can get into plenty of trouble. This electric company is so completely incompetent that the state can take action. This is from the top down and for some reason no one is working on fixing the problems.

[KansasCity-2012]

2 Weeks without power? After Hurricane Ivan, my place was without power for 6 weeks in Pensacola. At that time, the water reclamation plant - (ole stinky we used to call it) was 2 blocks from the waterfront at 2 foot above sea level. Salt water intruded and ruined the treatment. It was messy to restore. The restoral of the poopy plant signified the event when water was turned back on for the city. As we all know, water use in most homes includes the sewer, so with a sewer plant under repair, they had to turn off water for 200,000 residents until the water treatment was restored to acceptable levels. Power restoral followed, but done in parallel.

Our trouble there, was weak structures like sheds, became airborne in the high winds and collided and then damaged moderate structures. Over a million trees toppled. Flood waters came in and washed away roads for a few blocks inland.

Sandy victims need to plan for one more month of hardship. It just takes time to rebuild infrastructure. Home repairs will be another story. If building codes changed much and older homes are under repair, there may be a mandate to upgrade homes to modern codes, which comes with a cost not usually covered in windstorm damage policies. Keep the number to FEMA in your cell phone.

For homes with flooded basements, use marine battery and boat bilge pumps available at boat stores and Walmart. The cost is much cheaper than portable generator. The battery can be recharged with a car and jumper cables.

[zebra8835]

Computers run nearly everything now. When ever you see a major power disruption anywhere, utility companies send crews from all over the United States. Why? because they operate with near skeleton crews to keep costs down like every other company and can't handle such a massive job alone.

To imply the government has control over the weather or this clean up is just silly.

[credibility2]

This is disgraceful and unacceptable. I remember how Bush was vilified and accused of being a racist because he couldn't please the folks fast enough in the Gulf area after Katrina, especially in New Orleans. Sandy is no different where Obama is concerned. He should be ashamed of himself. Sandy also points out the failure of government run mostly by Dems, who clearly can't handle the enormity of this disaster AND they don't seem to care at all. Lastly, as long as you have labor unions running the repair and restoration show, they will milk it for every bit of overtime they can get. They're in no hurry to get the work done and it shows. The longer it takes, the more overtime and bigger their paychecks.