Tropical Storm Isaias: Long Islanders Frustrated With Response From PSEG LI To Restore Electricity
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - About 120,000 customers remained without power on Long Island on Thursday. It could be another day or two before their lights, air conditioning, internet and cell service are restored.
As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, their frustrations are growing.
The Lochan family of Smithtown is in dire need of electricity.
"We have two children with cystic fibrosis who require electricity in order to not only run the air conditioning, to utilize their airway clearance vests and nebulizers to keep them healthy and out of the hospital," said Tiffany Lochan.
Even though The Lochans are on a priority list for power restoration, they said they could not get through to PSEG Long Island.
"I called numerous times, nothing," said Lochan.
That's a familiar cry from Long Islanders after trees fell like dominoes, pulling down wires, blocking roads and knocking out power.
Emotions range from alarm to frustration for people working from home without electricity, internet and weaker cell phone service.
"I've been constantly going into my car and charging the battery, repeatedly," said Catherine Raciborski of Glen Head.
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It's also causing problems for people who filled their freezers to ride out the coronavirus pandemic.
"All the food that's going to be wasted with this, with them not getting the power back on," said one person.
"Everything went bad. Everything went out in the garbage," said another.
"We called and we didn't get an acceptable answer. They have no idea when they're coming out," said another.
PSEG Long Island President Daniel Eichorn said communication has been intermittent.
"We've made a lot of improvement. We think the majority of our customers are getting through to us, but we know it's not 100 percent there," said Eichorn.
There are multiple calls for investigations into what went wrong with the utility that was supposed to have fixed the communication flaws of LIPA during Superstorm Sandy.
"This new system came out of the ashes of the old one, and the old one came out of the ashes of the old one before that. And, that there's a real level of frustration," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.
"I think, at this point, they're doing just as bad as LIPA did during Sandy," said Lochan, whose kids, meanwhile, are staying healthy thanks to a generator paid for by The Red Cross.
PSEG Long Island said 85 percent of customers will be restored by the end of August 7. The rest would be restored the next day.
