Safety-check issues hamper power restoration

The effort to turn power back on for almost 90,000 Long Island LIPA customers was beset by confusion and controversy Saturday as inspectors went house to house in some affected South Shore communities to determine if conditions were safe.

On the 12th day since Sandy hit full-force, 64,402 LIPA customers in Nassau and 24,315 in Suffolk were still without power, the utility said Saturday. Company officials say 99 percent of those customers able to receive power -- those with intact electrical systems -- should have service restored by Tuesday.

Impatience and anger with the Long Island Power Authority's pace of recovery boiled over at three separate rallies Saturday and official news conferences, all demanding answers as to why they have been left in the dark for nearly two weeks.

"At the end of the day, we need to improve that process. No question about it," said Michael Hervey, LIPA's chief operating officer.

At a residents' protest in Massapequa, Dawn Kostakis, 41, said, "There is no communication and nobody has come to tell us what is going on."

Not far away, a LIPA-hired crew, which included a team of about 40 firefighters, went door to door with clipboards in one powerless Massapequa neighborhood to survey electrical panels. With permission, they entered residents' basements and garages using flashlights to check whether the panels were damaged by water.

"If they're not home, they're going to get their meter pulled, because we can't afford to have the grid blow," said an East Meadow-based private electrical inspector overseeing the survey team for LIPA who did not want his name published.

For those who failed the test, there was despair.

"It's time to figure out where we're going to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it won't be here," said Loretta O'Connor, 74, whose home on Division Avenue in Massapequa was deemed too unsafe for power restoration.

In Merrick, a homeowner said his home sustained electrical damage, but his power was turned on anyway.

Richard Zemser said LIPA told him that he and his neighbors wouldn't have electricity until every house on his block was inspected. But Zemser, 67, said his power was restored Friday without an inspection. Soon after, he heard his circuit breaker trip and went to his basement to find melted wires.

Saturday, a Westbury electrician inspected his home, giving him bad news -- his electrical appliances were damaged by saltwater and his house would need work before he could safely have power again.

Bob Baram, a frustrated Baldwin Harbor resident, also hired a private electrician after he was told by LIPA earlier in the week that he needed an inspection to get his power back.

Baram, 66, said that he passed inspection Thursday, but as of Saturday night, his home remained dark. He said he plans to deduct the inspection's $160 cost from his next electric bill.

"It is not about the money . . . it is about the arrogance and inefficiency of LIPA," he said.

Residents on Massapequa's Division Avenue said they had absolutely no notice that survey teams would be in the area.

On Bayview Place, Mike Liardi, 40, wasn't home when the inspectors first came by earlier in the day. But he was able to flag down a firefighter to take a look at his circuit breaker. "I passed," he told his neighbors, holding up the form.

At least part of lower Massapequa got power back Saturday night. P.J. Conaty, 51, said he noticed that the power had returned on Division Avenue about 7:30 p.m., but said most of his neighbors weren't home to celebrate the fact.

"It feels warmer here already with the lights -- even without the heat," he said.

The procedures to turn on the lights varied between Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In Nassau, town officials are communicating directly with the LIPA substations, telling them areas where it is safe to turn power back on. Inspections are continuing for homes and structures that were flooded.

In Suffolk County, county and town officials in Islip, Babylon and Brookhaven weren't requiring inspections but they were urging residents, especially those in flooded areas, to turn off their main circuit breakers and contact licensed electricians to assess and repair damaged portions of the electrical systems

Bellone said officials have gone door to door, made phone calls, posted notices in affected areas and put statements on their websites

Bellone criticized LIPA, saying its inspection plan was a "system thrown together five days after the storm." The idea that the inspections were for protecting the public was "ludicrous" and "lawyers trying to cover themselves," he said.

When asked if he thought bypassing the inspections could cause unsafe conditions, like fires, he said the towns are preparing for these possibilities. He noted Babylon has coordinated with its fire departments to have crews on standby, ready to react when power is restored.

"There is no way in the aftermath of the storm to prevent every eventuality that will occur . . . you have to balance the hazards and safety risks," Bellone said.

Hervey, during the news conference in Hicksville Saturday, offered this advice: "If you're in a flooded home, open your circuit breakers in your house before we energize the area. That way there's no safety issue inside of the house."

Of what it took to get the inspections going, Hervey said, "I think there were more areas to cover than inspectors."

John Bruckner, president of National Grid's Long Island electric group, was asked why thousands of homes inland, in communities such as Jericho and Plainview far from the shore, remained without power.

"The number of customers impacted by this storm was just so tremendous," he said. "Those areas in the center of the island, while we had resources there, just demanded so many additional resources."

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo joined Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman Saturday at a food and supply distribution point on East Park Avenue. The trio helped distribute buckets filled with cleaning supplies to residents waiting in line.

"I'm going to hold them accountable, we're doing everything we can to make sure they get the power up, and they get it up quickly," Cuomo said. "I understand this was a storm and it was catastrophic storm and we want to be fair to the utilities, but I think they could have been better prepared. I think they could have responded faster than they have, and we're going to learn from it and we're going to hold them accountable."

LIPA TIMELINE

-- Compiled by Kevin Deutsch