Plainview Residents Could Face Long Wait for Power

LIPA closing customer service centers Monday to 'focus all our efforts' on storm recovery.

Posted by Patch Staff, August 29, 2011 at 08:16 am

While LIPA was promising Sunday to work toward restoring power as quickly as it could, Plainview residents were hoping for the best and finding things to do. And they may need to keep busy because the restoration of power could take a while.

LIPA is reporting no change in the number of Plainview residents without power.

LIPA said Sunday night that while it continues to make progress in restoring service, it does "not know at this point when everyone will have power back on. It is very likely that many customers will be without power for several days. We understand your frustration and will communicate new information as soon as it becomes available."

LIPA said that at the height of the storm, about 500,000 customers were without power. As of 8:30 p.m. Sunday, 82,000 (16%) customers had had their power returned.

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Marc August 29, 2011 at 01:48 pm

LIPA is terrible. As residents of Plainview and Old-Bethpage we pay high taxes and are treated like 2nd class citizens. I drove through the streets of Plainview last night and found up to 10-15 blocks of continous outages. The more disturbing part was that there was not 1 LIPA truck to be found. How is this possible????

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Tom August 29, 2011 at 02:05 pm

I guess you don't remember LILCO and Hurricane Gloria. LIPA has done a great job trimming trees and getting ready for this. There are a half million homes without power on Long Island. Take a look at these pictures and multiply those downed wires by all of Long island. It will take a few days to get everyone back.

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Marilyn August 29, 2011 at 05:09 pm

I just got my power back about an hour ago. It was out since 1am Saturday night. I happened to be outside when the LIPA guys were working and I spoke to one of them. They are being chased by Fox News to video how poorly they are responding as they were filming them while they were working. When they were finished I went out and thanked them for their help. One of the guys said it's his job and the irony is that he has no power where he lives. I may not always be LIPA's biggest fan, but these guys are working hard today. Let's give them a break!

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Marc August 29, 2011 at 05:43 pm

the guys yes, but the execs no. Has any traveled down Manetto Hill Road. You cant, with a large tree blocking the entire road since sat night.

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Marilyn August 29, 2011 at 09:48 pm

Marc, the tree blocking Manetto Hill Rd is the responsibility of the Town of Oyster Bay who have also been working hard to get rid downed trees. Then LIPA can do their thing.

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Neal Schwartz August 30, 2011 at 01:44 am

Manetto Hill rd is a major road. The traffic, because of that tree being down, has been diverted into a shopping plaza that is busy to say the least, Dangerous!!! The town had crews cutting and removing trees on side blocks the morning after the storm. Why this incredibly large problem hasn’t taken precedence and dealt with is a “horrible and negligent problem”. Whether it be LIPA waiting for the Town, or the Town waiting for LIPA is irrelevant! Someone is going to get hurt and it is going to be both of their faults

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Neal Schwartz August 30, 2011 at 01:58 am

Also I drove thru East Meadow Hicksville Plainview part of Levittown this morning for over 1 and 1/2 hours I didn't see a single LIPA truck or anyone working on wires at all maybe they should post where the crews are working so we might believe them. Unless they put all their trucks in one town shouldn’t someone see them??? We pay one of the highest or maybe the highest electric bills in the country give us something for it. Can’t charge us for electricity we can’t get! Hmm or is that the idea make it take so long they can try to charge us for the repairs?

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Marilyn August 30, 2011 at 11:52 am

I was outdoors clearing debris for most of the day yesterday. Even after my power was restored, they had small vans that were not labeled as LIPA passing and asking if the power was restored yet. They are driving through all the areas and assessing what still needs to be done. There were also numerous TOB sanitation trucks that were passing around to pick up some of the huge tree limbs and smaller TOB pickup trucks going around to assess what limbs have to be picked up and where. I do agree that we still have a dangerous situation in Plainview and that across Long Island there is major havoc. Perhaps we need to let Gov. Cuomo know how we feel about LIPA's response to the storm. It really is the executives and not the workers!

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Jon L September 2, 2011 at 03:37 pm

I live in Plainview and after losing my power Sunday evening, I still have yet to get it back. We've been working off a generator for the past few days. I assume that LIPA has been sending their trucks 24/7 throughout the past week on rotating shifts. There's no way that they could restore everyone within the week by calling it a day as night falls. Let's not forget that Labor Day is soon approaching and there's storms in the forecast this weekend.

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