The Long Island Power Authority believes it will hit its goal for power restoration Friday.
"We continue to expect that 90 percent of all outages will be restored by the end of the day, with the majority or 99 percent to be restored sometime Sunday," LIPA chief Michael Hervey said at a morning news conference.
The utility said that as of Friday morning, it had restored over 445,000 outages. But that still left 78,000 Long Island customers without electricity.
LIPA is also worried that Mother Nature may add to its problems over the weekend.
"We are somewhat concerned about the weather forecast Sunday, which calls for thunderstorms," Hervey said. "We will work through those storms as safely as we can, but those storms may well add additional outages."
LIPA said it will work through the weekend and Hervey said that "our entire workforce will be available."
But the staffing for the weekend will depend on the size of the job.
"Staffing levels will remain the same to the extent that at some point we decide to rampdown because we're finished," Hervey said, adding, "we would hope that would be over the weekend."
The LIPA chief did say some of the tougher jobs will be the final ones.
"We've addressed many of the larger outages, and now we're addressing the smaller more complex outages."
Hervey and John Bruckner, National Grid's President of Long Island Transmission and Distribution, said they couldn't say how much overtime they will pay over the holiday weekend since they're dealing with many different employment contracts for the restoration jobs.
Bruckner said that they're getting addtional help on Friday from National Grid workers who have finished power restoration upstate.
In total, there are 7,500 workers on the job as of Friday, according to Bruckner.
While Hervey said the power restoration has been proceeding along as quickly as they said it would, he once again said he understood the frustration of those still in the dark.
"It's been a difficult, difficult week for many of our customers. Many having power out much longer than anticipated," Hervey said. "I certainly want our customers to know that we have put every last resource available that we can use into power restoration."
Well LIPA gave everyone off the weekend and Holiday so as not to pay the overtime. You can't have it both ways.
We have several elderly and disabled on our block and after 5 days in the dark it was dangerous, and rep Curran pushed LIPA to get our power up and running as we had no lines or trees down, just no power. 4 men from Michigan showed up, reset the master fuse, and within 30 minutes we had power
I am sure there will be plenty of work from this storm for weeks to come......
Hurricane Irene By the Numbers as of September 3, 2011 Infrastructure Damage: Homes and businesses affected 523,000 Most outages on Long Island in 25 Years Substations affected 24 Transmission lines damaged 58 Damage locations, wires down, downed trees, damaged equipment 5,587 Materials Issued to the Field: Feet of primary and secondary wire 1,000,000 Poles 998 Cross arms 2,906 Transformers 924 Restoration Workers and Accommodations: Total field workers - line and tree trimming crews 3,889 Behind-the-Scene workers 3,900 (Logistics experts, supply chain, planning, engineering, surveyors, customer service, business services, communications, administrative support) Home states of additional crews 12 (Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas) Customer Communications: Storm-related customer phone calls received 878,000 Storm-related outbound customer calls 800,000 Followers on Twitter 3,556 Website views 1,868,806 Facebook Interactions 660,335 *****************************
They obviously can not give you one. I know it is easy for me to say please be a bit more patient. I am sure they are working as safely and diligently as possible.....
There are plenty of personnel working in the area.........
Thank you for your common sense reasoning.
Paul where did you get those numbers because they are all LIPA lies. They are on the LIPA website. I think it was alot of work to perform in such a short time span..... Bet you and I could not do that alone..... As so many people have said: there were no trucks anywhere. They are all over the place. Some marked, some not, some trucks, some cars etc.. You couldnt talk to LIPA Not sure who your were trying to reach but the contact volume has been high..etc.... It was a minor windstorm, there were apparently NO trees really down anywhere Where are you looking? There where plenty of poles and trees down throughout the area. Everyone knows LIPA just needed to send 3 guys over to flip a switch or reset a fuse. I am sure some work was minor but most was major. Maybe the lines were originaly out a distance away before they were able to as you say "FLIP A SWITCH" We all live in a society that is entitled and complains. Yes, complainers complain. People do not want to hear or see the stats. Wrong again, people have said they want to know what is going on. on how bad the "minor wind storm" was. I think you need to do further research on this topic before you complain. Was not as monor as you think. They are just concerned with themselves and complaining. Yes, concerned only about one location without looking at the region as a whole. Hope this helps...... ********
I have been stating all along what you have said. It is good to know that there are other people that have a "Voice of Reason and Common Sense. I am in good company.......
No LIPA is not off this weekend or Holiday....
Hurricane Irene By the Numbers as of September 4, 2011 Infrastructure Damage: Homes and businesses affected 523,000 Most outages on Long Island in 25 Years Substations affected 24 Transmission lines damaged 58 Damage locations, wires down, downed trees, damaged equipment 5,587 Materials Issued to the Field: Feet of primary and secondary wire 1,128,145 Poles 1096 Cross arms 2,906 Transformers 1098 Restoration Workers and Accommodations: Total field workers - line and tree trimming crews 3,889 Behind-the-Scene workers 3,900 (Logistics experts, supply chain, planning, engineering, surveyors, customer service, business services, communications, administrative support) Home states of additional crews 12 (Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas) Customer Communications: Storm-related customer phone calls received 899,000 Storm-related outbound customer calls 800,000 Followers on Twitter 3,556 Website views 1,868,806 Facebook Interactions 764,139 *****************************