Thousands of Long Island Power Authority customers were again without electricity Tuesday, the day after the utility had said it had repaired the last of the power outages sparked by Irene the week prior.
About 3,000 homes and businesses were without power at 2 p.m., down from about triple that amount, according to LIPA’s website. The outages reportedly resulted from weakened tree limbs downed by rain and wind, as well as the continuing Irene-related repair work.
About half of the 1.1 million LIPA customers lost power after Hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly before it knocked down thousands of trees and tree limbs across the Island.
Most customers had their lights back on by sundown Friday, but some outages lingered into Labor Day weekend. LIPA representatives were not immediately available for comment on the outages Tuesday.
“Damage from the storm still remains, so LIPA crews and contractors will continue to be out in many communities making repairs that will strengthen and enhance Long Island’s electric system,” the utility said in a statement on its website.
Elected officials and those who endured the blackouts blasted LIPA and its contractor, National Grid, for their response, which included calling in back-up crews from out of state to make repairs to the badly damaged system. The outages were the worst since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.
Two people were arrested amid the frustration of being without power, including a man who made an unspecified threat against LIPA and another suspect who phoned in a bomb threat against the utility.
State officials said there were about 1,300 outages as of Monday evening, down from a peak of 945,000 the same time last week.
Consolidated Edison, National Grid and Orange and Rockland said service has been restored to all of their customers.
Central Hudson Gas & Electric said it has 1,190 outages and New York State Electric and Gas was working on about 40.
-With Associated Press.