Stormy weather brings more power and service outages to LI

Thousands of customers were out of power amid blustery weather on Long Island Sunday evening, while service outages for Internet, cable, and phone that originated with Tropical Storm Isaias Aug. 4 continued in some areas.

The new power outages came after PSEG Long Island's restoration of the original 420,000 customers whose power was knocked out from the high winds of Isaias, as well as thousands afterward that were storm-related.

Sunday's outages were scattered through Long Island, according to the PSEG outage map. The outage number fluctuated throughout the day, going up to 6,702 by 7 p.m., then back down to 4,271 minutes later and down to about a thousand customers or less later in the night. 

Elizabeth Flagler, a PSEG Long Island spokeswoman, said Sunday’s outages were due to the unsettled weather. 

“We had quite a bit of lightning and heavy rain come through the middle of the Island,” she said, explaining lightning struck a power pole in Holbrook, where a majority of the outages — 2,200 customers — were as of just before 7:30 p.

The number of outages for customers of Altice, the company that operates Optimum, and Verizon, was not disclosed by company representatives.

Lisa Anselmo, spokeswoman for Altice, acknowledged there were still customers without service but said they were few.  Anselmo wrote in an email later Sunday evening that as of the morning, “we had less than 0.5% of customers still impacted from the storm.”

She would not how many this represented.

 Verizon spokesman Steve Van Dinter also said there were some customers on the Island without services fully restored.

“Generally, as power has returned to areas [Verizon] Fios has followed soon after,” Van Dinter said in an email. “We are working through open issues for individual customers.”

Many optimum customers on Long Island have complained to Newsday that they have been without phone, Internet and cable services for days. 

Sunday, two Suffolk customers reported having service restored Sunday after their stories were featured in Newsday. 

Among them were Pat Desmond of Miller Place, who said Saturday that because her home had no internet, she was using her cellphone at a friend’s home.

Over the last week, the couple had visited a nearby Optimum service store and called the customer service number several times, with no luck, she said. After talking with neighbors, she found that six others on her block have had similar experiences, she said.

In Copiague, Darrell Wilson and his wife, Brenda, had been without cable, phone and internet service since the day that Isaias hit. They had their service restored Sunday morning.

After being loyal customers for years, Wilson said he is starting to consider switching providers after this experience.

“We’ve been here for 31 years. We’ve been loyal customers for many years and the impression I’m getting from them is basically: They don’t care,” Wilson said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.com,catherine.carrera@newsday.comchayesmatthew,

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.