As of 4:20 PM today, LIPA is reporting that the number of outages across Long Island is well under 200,000. With just over 82,000 customers in Suffolk and under 112,000 in Nassau, the current figure sits at 193,985 without power. Unfortunately these numbers do not include Long Beach, Atlantic Beach, the Rockaway Peninsula, or Fire Island, which have been so devastated by the storm that many buildings could not receive electricity even if it were restored to the area.
With nearly a million residences and businesses having lost power during Hurricane Sandy, the utility provider and other agencies have been hard at work to restore power to Long Islanders who are left without electricity and without heat. LIPA is predicting that 90% of customers will have power restored by the end of the day tomorrow (that’s about another 95,000 to go), but a new challenge looms on the horizon.
A powerful Nor’easter will be slamming Long Island between Wednesday and Thursday, making it not only difficult for workers to continue restoring lost power, but also possible some of the lines which have gone live will be knocked down once more. Those still without heat will face the burden of living in even colder temperatures, and the current gas shortage could very well be exacerbated.
