Hicksville, NY — In the wake of a major and historic winter storm that brought strong winds and up to three feet of snow in some locations across Long Island, National Grid continues to make good progress with its restoration efforts. As of 1 p.m. today, power has been restored to approximately 29,000 of the nearly 40,000 that lost power from the storm. And, given our thorough state of preparedness, 94% of those customers restored through this morning had their power restored within four hours of losing power.
National Grid continues to focus on restoring service to all customers as soon as possible and have significant resources available to respond. With the vast majority of the remaining outages located in Suffolk County, additional resources are being shifted to the eastern part of Long Island. At the same time, crews are now being challenged by access to roadways and job sites. Many roads remain impassible due to heavy snow accumulation, which has also made for difficult working conditions in the field. Nonetheless, for those jobs we can access, we remain confident that we will meet our initial projection of restoring power to most customers within 24 hours of an outage being reported. Meanwhile, National Grid continues to coordinate with town, county, and state officials and remains ready to assign repair crews to any inaccessible outages as soon as roadways have been cleared and access is available.
While the electric system has fared well thus far, additional outages may occur. Heavy snow on trees, coupled with continued winds has the capability of bringing down wires and damaging other electrical facilities. Our pre-planning has us well positioned to respond to any additional outages and we will continue to monitor any changing conditions and openly communicate our progress.
Customers are also encouraged to visit LIPA’s web site at www.lipower.org/stormcenter for updated restoration information. Power outages can be reported to National Grid through the Long Island Power Authority’s (LIPA) hotline: 1-800-490-0075 (631-755-6900 outside the Metro NY area) or by visiting www.lipower.org from a computer or mobile device. To report via text messaging, text OUT to myLIPA (695472) - pre-registration is required.
For the safety of the public, we remind customers to remain alert. If you leave your home, please exercise extreme caution. With the heavy snow, many hazards, including downed wires, may not be visible and it is important that you remain alert. Please drive carefully, particularly when driving near any of the repair crews working to restore power. If using a portable generator, make sure to shut off the main breaker in the electric service panel to avoid power flowing into the electric system, which can endanger crews working to restore power. Most importantly, if you see any downed wire, assume it is live and do not go near it. Report it immediately to 1-800- 490-0075 or at 631-755-6900.
