LIPA Power Outages Could Last A Week, ConEd Begins Lower Manhattan Power Restoration Until Saturday After Hurricane Sandy

The Long Island Power Authority informed residents in the East End of Long Island on Wednesday that power outages could last longer than a week. Meanwhile, Consolidated Edison said power in Lower Manhattan has been restored in some places on Thursday.

Millions of LIPA customers and about 719,000 ConEd customers in New York City and its outer boroughs were left without power in the dark after Hurricane Sandy hit New York on Monday.

Long Island

According to Sag Harbor Online in Long Island, Sag Harbor, Southampton and East Hampton residents do not have power.

“To put this in perspective, once the storm left, it left us with almost a million LIPA customers without power,” LIPA spokesman, Mark Gross, said. “We did say seven to 10 days originally, but this storm was worse than anyone could have predicted. Customers should be prepared to wait a little longer than that.”

Gross explained that Hurricane Irene was much less severe for Long Island residents, with Sandy lasting for two and a half days. He said LIPA was assessing damaged transmission lines, substations and neighborhoods and will restore transmission lines next in its first of many steps with help from crews from Michigan, Iowa and California.

Lower Manhattan

According to Reuters, ConEd has restored power to 2,000 homes in lower Manhattan and 28,200 in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, the company said Wednesday.

ConEd said two of the underground electrical networks which were shut down on Monday due to floodwaters were restored to service. However, it said 719,000 customers in New York City and neighboring Westchester County are still experiencing power outages.

ConEd said on Tuesday that power in Lower Manhattan should be restored within four days, meaning Saturday power should be back for residents south of 39th Street.