Updated 3:43 p.m. The National Weather Service is warning of severe thunderstorms beginning late Thursday afternoon around the tri-state area. Saturday could bring more bad weather as remnants of Hurricane Laura spread over the region.
Damaging wind gusts of 60 mph or higher, along with large hail and heavy rainfall are expected, and there is a chance of an isolated tornado.
Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci sent out a robocall reminding people about how to stay safe in the storm and how to report outages or downed trees.
And Highway Superintendent Kevin Orelli, whose crews are still cleaning up from the Aug. 4 tropical storm,
“We’re already so strongly mobilized” because of the tropical storm, Orelli said. “We might have to take people off the road and bring them back to the yard for a little because of the wind but we have a lot of people working and crews ready to go.”
He noted that many trees in town are already somewhat damaged from the last storm and urged everyone to take precautions.
“We are closely monitoring the two weather systems and will have a full complement of personnel to respond safely and as quickly as possible to any service interruptions it may cause,” said John O’Connell, PSEG Long Island’s vice president of Transmission and Distribution Operations.
“Additional crews from both local and off-Island resources are being procured to work alongside PSEG Long Island’s highly trained line personnel to quickly and safely restore power to customers. In addition, based on the experiences during Tropical Storm Isaias, we have made configuration and capacity changes to our phone system; rolled back our outage management system to a previous more stable version; and put processes in place to continuously monitor our IT systems for capacity and bottleneck issues.”
State Sen. Jim Gaughran fired a shot across the bow of the Long Island Power Authority, citing its required oversight of PSEG-LI, which eceived a great deal of criticism for its for communications failures and its response to the storm.
“It is very clear that LIPA has not done anything to correct some of the issues with the storm management,” he said, pointing to legislative hearings last week that ran more than 13 hours. “PSEG totally failed us; the only change they’re prepared to make between storms is to try to discourage customers from calling them,” referring to a PSEG-LI statement earlier this week that it is considering ways to dissuade customers from reporting non-emergency outages.
He noted that PSEG isn’t controlled by the Public Service Commission, unlike other utilities in the state.
LIPA said, “Ahead of potential weather events today and this weekend, LIPA is closely monitoring the immediate, corrective actions PSEG Long Island had made to the outage management and communications systems to address performance issues during Tropical Storm Isaias. These actions include software updates, stress tests, and changes to the phone systems to handle heavier call volumes. LIPA’s end-to-end review of these systems by third-party experts continues, and we will issue 30-day, 90-day, and 180-day reports on that independent, comprehensive review.”
To report a power outage to PSEG-LI:
Call 1-800-490-0075
Stay connected:
- Download the new PSEG Long Island mobile app to report an outages and receive information on restoration times, crew locations and more.
- To report and receive status updates via text, text OUT to PSEGLI (773454) or visit us online at www.psegliny.com/outages
- To report an outage or downed wire call PSEG Long Island’s 24-hour Electric Service number: 800-490-0075 or use our web chat feature at www.psegliny.com
- Follow PSEG Long Island on Facebook and Twitter to report an outage and for updates before, during and after the storm
- Visit PSEG Long Island’s outage information across Long Island and the Rockaways online at https://mypowermap.psegliny.com
Visit PSEG Long Island at:
To report a downed tree blocking a road, call the emergency line of the Town of Huntington hotline, 631-499-0444.
Rain is expected to continue throughout the weekend.
PSEG