More than 1,500 Glen Cove customers remain without power one week after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on Long Island and plunged much of the community into darkness.
The Long Island Power Authority claims it is working around the clock on restoration and now has more than 6,200 lineman and tree workers on Long Island. The utility reported early Monday that is has restored nearly 700,000 customers to power and is "on track" to have most customers restored by Wednesday.
At 1 a.m. Monday, there were more than 166,000 customers in Nassau County without power, including 1,659 in Glen Cove. Many are now shivering through 40-degree nights without heat.
Neighboring Glen Head has the most outages of any Town of Oyster Bay community, slightly more than Glen Cove with 1,827 customers without power.
When combined, Sea Cliff, Glenwood Landing, Locust Valley, Lattingtown and Glen Head have more than 4,000 customers still out.
LIPA can not say specifically why certain communities, including Glen Cove, are lagging in the restoration efforts. In general, LIPA claims it must before it can address individual neighborhoods. The process takes time, LIPA says.
Rep. Peter King, R-Seaford, demanded that LIPA "immediately remedy its poor customer service and improve its inadequate sharing of information with residents who are still without power."
"LIPA’s failure to keep customers informed of the latest information on conditions and improvements is simply unacceptable," King said. "County Executive (Edward) Mangano and I have heard so many complaints from many Long Island towns and neighborhoods about the ‘arrogant’ and unhelpful attitude of so many of LIPA employees as well as LIPA’s failure to respond to legitimate inquiries from those without power.”
LIPA says 275,000 total customers are without power, excluding customers in the most severely flooded areas. According to LIPA, tens of thousands of customers are being restored daily.
