Focus Remains on Restoring Critical Facilities; Continued Efforts Underway to Secure Additional Outside Crews; 1,100 Crews Currently Working Throughout Long Island
(Long Island, N.Y.) LIPA and National Grid have restored power to more than 200,000 customers on Long Island who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy, a devastating super storm that made landfall along the Northeast on October 29. The storm affected over 1 million customers. LIPA is focused on intense restoration efforts across Long Island, beginning with restoring critical facilities such as hospitals and emergency services, while also continuing efforts to secure assistance from additional outside crews.
“The enormity of this storm has strained the resources of all utilities in its path,” said Michael Hervey, LIPA Chief Operating Officer. “As a result, there are significant limitations to the number of additional restoration crews available to assist us in getting the power back on. However, as we continue our outreach over the next few days, we will know more about our access to those resources. In the meantime, I’m tremendously proud of the crews who are already here working around the clock in order to get the job done as safely and quickly as possible.”
LIPA has been responding to more than 1 million power outages on Long Island as a result of the unprecedented storm. More than 1,100 crews from National Grid, other utilities and qualified contractors from as far as California and Texas are currently assisting with restoration efforts, supported by more than 4,500 people behind the scenes from virtually every company department assisting with activities such as call handling, logistics and damage assessment.
Restoration Highlights
- Restored power to 16 of 21 hospitals
- Restored power to 22 Substations of 50 that were out of power
- 1,100 High Voltage and Tree Trim Crews working on the system
- An additional 500 High Voltage and Tree Trim Crews are expected to arrive tomorrow
- Restored Over 200,000 customers of total affected approximately 1 million
Restoration crews are currently working in hazardous conditions, with some communities still inaccessible due to blocked roadways and flood waters. LIPA is working as hard as possible to restore power while ensuring the safety of its workforce.
LIPA encourages customers to focus on safety during Halloween since there will be trick-or-treaters out during the day and night. While driving pay extra attention since many areas do not have street lights. Make sure children stay clear of storm debris. A fallen tree could be concealing live electric wires.
Under the company’s priority system, repair crews first address problems with transmission lines, substations and critical facilities such as hospitals, fire departments and law enforcement agencies. After those problems are resolved, primary and secondary circuits that serve local neighborhoods will be repaired.
Customers can stay tuned to local media for updated storm information or visit LIPA’s Storm Center at www.lipower.org. Safety is the primary concern in a major storm, and LIPA and National Grid are urging customers to use extreme caution in the storm damage areas. LIPA and National Grid offer the following tips for customers to minimize inconvenience and maximize safety in the event that storm-related power interruptions do occur.
- New York area telephone networks are experiencing heavy volume and congestion as a result of the storm. If customers have trouble reaching the customer call center to report an outage on 1-800-490-0075 or 1-631-755-6900 they should try again. Customers may also use our other communications options to report an outage such as texting “OUT” to 695472 (MyLIPA) or online at www.lipower.org including on mobile devices.
- Never touch downed power lines, and always assume that any fallen lines are live electric wires. To report downed power lines call 1-800-490-0075.
- If you use a generator to supply power during an outage, be sure to only operate it outdoors. Before operating generators, be sure to disconnect from the electric system by shutting off the main breaker located in the electric service panel. Failure to do this could jeopardize the safety of crews working to restore power.
- If you lose power, turn off any appliances that were on when the power went off, but leave one light on so you will know when power is restored.
- Power problems can sometimes interrupt public water supply systems or disable well pumps, so it’s an especially good idea to keep a supply of bottled drinking water handy, as well as some canned food.
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric provider, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to more than 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA is the 2nd largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of electric revenues, 3rd largest in terms of customers served and the 7th largest in terms of electricity delivered. In 2011, LIPA outperformed all other overhead electric utilities in New York State for frequency and duration of service interruptions. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island generating assets.
More information about LIPA can be found online at a http://www.lipower.org
