85 Percent Of LI Power Outages Will Be Restored By Friday: PSEG

LONG ISLAND, NY — PSEG Long Island said power will be restored to 85 percent of customers by Friday. About 160,000 customers remained without power Wednesday night, a day after the island was slammed by Tropical Storm Isaias.

PSEG's website showed 261,126 customers without power Thursday morning, but the company said that number is not accurate.

"Please note that due to the large number of off-island crews brought into the service area on Monday and Tuesday, the work is getting done quicker than we can update the numbers on the website," PSEG said on its Facebook page. "Crews have cleared fallen limbs or trees from 500 locations. More than 2,000 lineworkers, tree trimmers and other personnel are working around the clock, in 16-hour shifts until every customer is restored."

Elected officials, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ordered an investigation into how the state's utilities responded to the storm, are not pleased with PSEG. Days before the storm, the company boasted in a news release about how the company "made significant investments to make the electric system more resilient to the effects of extreme weather conditions."

PSEG said Wednesday that it restored power to more than 260,000 customers out of about 420,000 affected by Isaias. PSEG's website and phone system were overwhelmed during the storm. Many customers said they were unable to report outages or get an estimated time of power restoration.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran sent a letter to PSEG leadership "demanding answers regarding correction of system failures and review of protocols."

"As a public utility company, I call upon the leadership team of PSEG to announce plans for a post recovery review of communications protocols and devise backup plans," she said. "A repeat of the same mistakes is simply unacceptable. These problems should have been corrected after Superstorm Sandy, not faced again with Isaias."

Cuomo declared a state of emergency for parts of the state, including Long Island.

"We're taking an all-hands-on-deck approach and activating every resource at our disposal to expedite communities' recovery from the impacts of Tropical Storm Isaias," Cuomo said in a statement. "The State is working closely with local governments to help ensure they have the help they need to get back on their feet."