Power restored to thousands in Long Beach; Wednesday morning outage is area's second in 12 hours
A fault in an underground electrical supply cable led to a Wednesday morning power outage that affected more than 6,000 PSEG Long Island customers in Long Beach, as well as Long Island Rail Road commuters, an electric company spokesman said.
The outage lasted about four hours, with service to all customers restored by 10:55 a.m., spokesman Jeffrey Weir said.
It was the second major outage in the area in about a 12-hour period, though the two instances were unrelated, Weir said. On Tuesday night, an incident involving a PSEG substation left more than 8,500 customers without power for about 34 minutes, Weir said.
The incident Wednesday was the result of a cable fault near the intersection of West Park Avenue and National Boulevard, Weir said. The cause of the fault remains under investigation. Weir said the damage does not appear to be the result of excavation in the area.
Weir said restoration of service may not immediately be reflected on the PSEG online outage map.
The outage affected about 6,200 customers, as well as LIRR riders at the nearby Long Beach Station. The railroad advised riders that ticket purchases were unavailable at ticket windows and ticket machines during the outage, but said customers could purchase tickets aboard trains at no extra cost.
Tuesday's outages were related to a bus differential issue, Weir said. Bus is short for bus bar -- a strip of brass, copper or aluminum that conducts electricity within a substation. These can be shorted by electrical surges and, Weir said, PSEG dealt with the issue Tuesday night by switching circuitry to "go around" the substation -- restoring power to all those affected within 34 minutes.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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