Editor’s Note: This article was written and submitted by Micah Danney.
Crews began arriving this afternoon to help the Long Island Power Authority restore service to 850,000 customers still without it, LIPA said Wednesday.
The company's restoration estimate of seven to 10 days has not changed, chief operating officer Michael Hervey said, though the speed of the restoration will depend - in part - on the number of personnel LIPA can deploy.
"This will be the biggest storm in all of our history," said Hervey, standing in front of a cracked transmission line utility pole at the Long Island Rail Road Station in Glen Cove.
Hervey said certain locations take priority, including the 18 hospitals on Long Island that lost power, as well as water and sewer facilities and emergency management centers.
The storm affected multiple levels of LIPA's infrastructure, Hervey said. The challenge is to restore major transmission lines like the one at the Glen Cove train station before substations and local lines can be fixed. He said jobs like the nearby utility pole take a crew a day to fix.
"It's a little bit out of sight," Hervey said of the transmission and substation work, explaining that LIPA crews will not be seen on residential streets until substations are brought back on-line.
An influx of personnel is expected to help in reducing the amount of time that the recovery would take, he said. LIPA's current force of roughly 1,700 will be doubled in the next few days as nearly 2,000 additional workers are brought in from out of town.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office issued a press release stating that more than 1,200 of them are being redeployed from National Grid's upstate operations. More than 300 transmission linemen and equipment operators from public power companies have been assembled by the New York Power Authority (NYPA), according to the governor's office.
The crews are part of a new Public Power Assistance Team being coordinated by Cuomo.
“Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island and the New York metro area particularly hard, and we must direct our resources to where they are needed the most and can help the most people,” Cuomo said in a statement. “The Public Power Assistance Team will bring line crews from upstate and other parts of the country to downstate communities still in the dark, so we can restore power to affected homes and businesses as soon as possible. I want to extend my thanks to all of the crews who are putting themselves in harm's way to restore power as quickly as possible.”
Supporting crews will be arriving from Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Wisconsin, California, Tennessee, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida and Indiana.
Hervey said crews are working exhaustively to get power back on.
"Men and women working 16-hour shifts will continue to work 16-hour shifts until every last customer has power," he said.
LIPA: Extra Crews Arrive as 850K Wait for Power
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Joe Targove June 16, 2013 at 08:14 am
I'm willing to donate my party place in east Meadow and my dj services for free to help the kids. ..…Read More dreamcatcher516@gmail.com joe
Mickey June 10, 2013 at 08:25 am
Natalie. I am so sorry to read this. I too have a little 5 yr. old dog who I love desperately...…Read More and I feel your pain. There is another website for an organization that does an amazing job finding lost pets. It's LOSTMYDOGGIE.COM There is a small fee, but they get signs up all over the area and have a phone system set up where everyone in the area of where she was lost gets a PHONE CALL ALERT message to watch for Molly. They leave a phone number and their website address so if anyone has seen her or has her they know where to call. Great system! Check it out! I've never used them, but I HAVE received calls myself recently on 2 separate lost dogs and I've seen the many photos they hung up in my area in Levittown for dogs lost within a few miles of this area. In other words, they DO what they say they will do to help find Molly. Just want you to know what is out there to help you bring Molly home. My grandkids go to school around Grand and Camp Ave. We'll be watching for her! God Bless and good luck! I'm sure she will be returned to you real soon!!
Natalie Molloy June 10, 2013 at 10:14 am
Molly is actually not my dog , however I understandthe feeling of losing a dog and thought it would…Read More be a good idea to post on the Patch.
You just don't get it. No one here uses curling irons. You can't even absorb when people are serious. Don;t respond to people with nonesense. We know how lucky we are. As for you, your lucky everyday someone dont run you over while texting. As far as LIFA, I will call Washington DC when this blows over and request a full investigation. Thanks for your input, Long Island has been destroyed by morons living off the gravey train while we work one,two jobs to pay patronage management positions and hire rainbows to make the eye candy appearace look politically correct. Look what all this has finally done, destroyed our quality of life.
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Emergency Shelters, such as the one at the Port Washington Shelter have emergency power as do all the hospitals on the island. Last night at the Port Washington Shelter I saw someone on a ventilator there who was bused from Long Beach.
How is recommending a hospital or shelter "snarky"? Your wife is on Patch asking for help to keep your daughter alive. I offered my suggestion. You want LIPA to make the decision that your critical care patient is more important than someone else's, it's not going to happen. If your plan A of having a generator to power the life saving equipment is in place is quickly deteriorating because of lack of fuel, it's time to go to plan B and get your daughter to a place she has a better chance of survival.
How LIPA has handled this situation is unconscionable. There are families with members on life support without power, there are fraile seniors and children, families who lost their homes, families in the dark and cold for days now, and on and on. Why did LIPA wait all this time to even start sending trucks out? The local first responders have been the people at risk of electrocution as they rescued humans, removed trees from roads and streets, handled fires and other emergencies. Our first responders are not in the electricity business. Why did LIPA sit back while our firefighters, EMS, sanitation crews, police and even the National Guard removed trees from our streets, many entangled with wires -live or not (I guess it was supposed to be a barberic Trick or Treat ? You either get electrocuted or you don't?). It is Friday and WHERE IS LIPA ? Our governments and residents should each file lawsuits against :LIPA.
It's frustrating, yes, but there's no reason to be mad at the workers who are out there, making repairs. Keep in mind, in many cases, the town/state have to remove trees before LIPA can even think about fixing the wires - it's not simply one organization that's working on this. They are having additional workers come in from out of state to assist, but it's going to take time. I have no affiliation with LIPA whatsoever, but it blows my mind that people are shocked that there is no power, when they clearly stated before the storm even hit that that would probably be the case for over a week. If it's all money with LIPA, than I am fairly certain they'd like to have the power back on, so they could charge you. Complaining and screaming about things is only going to make the situation worse for everyone - we're all experiencing hardships due to the storm, and how you choose to handle those hardships says a lot about a person.
I am just sick of seeing people bicker with each other at gas stations, and I see crews out working, and I know they're bringing in additional workers. The majority of the people that I have heard complaining are mad that they've lost creature comforts - not lives or homes. There is obviously prioritization by LIPA based on need/commercial areas, etc, but why wouldn't they want people to have electricity, if that is what they bill us for, ResidentX?