LIPA Restores Outages

Call 1-800-490-0075 to Report an Outage

Uniondale - The St. Valentine's Day Winter Storm of 2007 is not showing any love for Long Island with its snow, sleet, ice and high winds. In response to storm-related outages, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) has extra crews working 16-hour shifts to restore service to customers as quickly as possible.

Since midnight through 2:30PM, some 39,000 LIPA customers have been affected by the winter weather system with 27,000 restored so far. The peak number of customers out at one time (21,900) occurred at 11 AM today. 700 personnel have been working on extended shifts replacing poles, repairing power lines, removing trees from LIPA facilities, and replacing fuses and resetting transformers, and coordinating the storm response.

Additional restoration crews will be working extended shifts through the evening and over night to make repairs.

“This winter storm has a bit of a bite to it, because of the ice and high winds,” said LIPA CEO and President Richard M. Kessel. “And we anticipate that we will experience more outages as the storm works its way past Long Island, because of the high sustained winds and wind gusts, and potential icing.

“We certainly owe a debt of gratitude and a thank you to the men and women of our restoration crews who are working in such horrible conditions to get the lights and heat back on in homes and businesses island-wide as quickly as possible,” said Mr. Kessel.

LIPA customers can visit LIPA’s Storm Center on its Web site at www.lipower.org for real-time outage reports, weather updates, and tips to stay prepared for weather emergencies.

To report an outage or downed wire call 1-800-490-0075.

LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric provider, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to more than 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA is the 2nd largest municipal electric utility in the nation in terms of electric revenues, 3rd largest in terms of customers served and the 7th largest in terms of electricity delivered. In 2008, LIPA outperformed all other overhead electric utilities in New York State for frequency of service interruptions, and ranked second for duration of service interruptions. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island generating assets. More information about LIPA can be found online at: http://www.lipower.org.

Media Contact Information
Vanessa Baird-Streeter
Phone - (516) 719-9230
Cell - (516) 640-0168
Media Pager - (516) 229-7248
media.relations@lipower.org

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