More than 69,000 of homes and businesses served by the Long Island Power Authority still had no electricity Monday morning, two weeks after Superstorm Sandy left about 90 percent of LI blacked out.
Officials with LIPA and National Grid, the utility company contracted to maintain LIPA’s infrastructure, said at a news conference Sunday that they expect to have power restored to 99 percent of their customers by sundown Tuesday. But LIPA noted that 55,000 structures in Nassau, Suffolk and the Rockaways cannot safely be repowered yet.
“We are in the process of setting up some centers for the ongoing work,” Michael Hervey, LIPA’s chief operating officer, told reporters. The centers will be in the hardest-hit areas on the South Shore, but their locations have yet to be announced.
Progress had been set back two days when a nor’easter blanketed the Island in snow last week, downing more trees and power lines, adding another 123,000 blackouts.
As of 10:30 a.m. Monday, there were 34,458 blackouts in Nassau, 28,709 on the Rockaway Peninsula and 6,665 in Suffolk. Officials said Nassau proved the most difficult to restore power to because of the density and size of trees downed there.