LIPA visit doesn't appease residents

Elisa Duren woke up Sunday to find three trees, a telephone pole and loose power lines scattered in the street in front of her Merrick home. Three days later, the mess has not been cleaned up and Duren is fed up.

"I don't feel safe right now," said Duren, whose front lawn at the corner of Florence Street and Riverside Avenue is littered with debris and wires. The situation is only mildly better than Sunday morning when, in the wake of Hurricane Irene, a lake of water infested by jellyfish settled in front of her home.

Wednesday, LIPA chief Michael Hervey visited the neighborhood to reassure residents that help had arrived. LIPA crews finally arrived in the area Tuesday evening.

"We are working to get [power] back as soon as possible," said Hervey as he was swarmed by angry residents. "I know it's frustrating."

But homeowners who have been without power -- or information from LIPA -- for days were not satisfied. Many said LIPA ignored their calls for days and only showed up when Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) began holding news conferences and television crews started arriving.

"Where were they before?" asked Katerina Brinton, who cannot access the driveway of her Florence Street home because of a downed tree. "It's disturbing to come home to this. You can see how helpless we are."

Hervey said he understood those frustrations. LIPA employees, many of whom are without power themselves, are working 16-hour days on the restoration effort, he said.

One of the major problems in Merrick, and throughout Nassau and Suffolk, are downed trees that have become tangled with power lines.

Downed trees on county streets can be removed by the Department of Public Works. But when trees pull down wires, LIPA must remove them or give the county approval to discard them, Hervey said.

LIPA crews in Nassau and Suffolk are coordinating their tree removal efforts with the counties, Hervey said. But, he concedes that "we need a better tree management system."

Despite pleas from residents, Hervey said moving power lines underground is not in the cards. LIPA estimates that burying the cables would cost $30 billion.