Officials: LIPA failed in Irene's aftermath

Failure by the Long Island Power Authority to effectively coordinate with municipal road crews across Nassau and Suffolk crippled early efforts to clear vital roadways and restore power in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene.

County, town and village officials said LIPA's delays in sending personnel to identify live wires and cut power so that trees could be removed dragged out the restoration effort and left government crews idle for days.

Local road crews were ready to get to work, but because of the potential danger from live wires on streets and in downed trees, they couldn't start clearing until receiving the go-ahead from LIPA. Local officials say that at the least, individual municipalities should have had a utility representative to travel with them from site to site -- a service many didn't receive until two days after the storm.

Rich Baker, commissioner of public works for Islip Town, said that for more than two days after Irene struck on Aug. 28, his crews "sat on their hands," waiting for clearance from LIPA that lines were dead or for the utility to come and de-energize them. That didn't happen until late Aug. 30, Baker said.

"It was very frustrating to us because 75 to 80 percent of our complaints were LIPA-oriented issues, mostly trees into power lines," Baker said.

LIPA's chief operating officer, Michael Hervey, acknowledged it took LIPA "a day or two" before it was working effectively with local governments on de-energizing lines and removing trees.

"It is something we have to work on Islandwide," he said. "We had several different ways we were doing it depending on the town and how we were interfacing with them. A uniform way of doing it would work better."

Hervey noted that all this week, LIPA is holding workshops with town and village officials in Nassau and Suffolk to work out a protocol for coordinating efforts during future storms.

Irene knocked out power to more than 523,000 -- or around half -- of LIPA's customers, and led the authority to assemble 7,500 workers, the largest group ever amassed to restore power after a storm on the Island. It took LIPA a week to restore power to 99 percent of affected customers. Five days into the outages, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo echoed Long Islanders' frustration when he ordered LIPA contractor National Grid to "get the power on now" or face loss of its contract.

Dealing with high demands

For LIPA, dealing with outages is a balancing act. Initial power restorations are primarily focused on hospitals, nursing homes and other large, critical facilities. Crews trained to work on high-voltage lines are in demand. "We need to find a way that doesn't tie up high-voltage repair crews," Hervey said. "It's a balance for us having tree-trim coordination."

LIPA, which estimates its crews cleared 10,000 trees or major branches after the storm, tried numerous approaches as it worked with local governments, Hervey said. When LIPA crews finally became available, in some cases town crews worked directly with them; in others, LIPA had an "interface person" with local officials.

Even when LIPA crews did arrive, complications sometimes slowed work.

Glenn Jorgensen, superintendent of highways in Smithtown, said when a LIPA crew member arrived on Aug. 30 to tour sites, they encountered a live wire on Oak Side Drive that had been exposed for two days. The tour quickly ended. Jorgensen said the technician told him, "It's a high-tension wire; I'm not allowed to leave."

Smithtown did hire a LIPA-certified company to clear trees, some of them impacted by wires. The service wound up doing much of LIPA's work for the first several days after the storm, costing Smithtown thousands of dollars, but opening roads earlier than it otherwise would have, Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen's suggestion: "I would have sent five or six or 10 LIPA trucks to every town depending on the size, to work directly with the superintendent of highways to get to those troubled areas."

George Woodson, superintendent of highways in Riverhead, said his crews were tied up for days waiting for LIPA to give them clearance or help with the hundreds of trees tangled in wires. One major roadway, Peconic Bay Boulevard, remained closed for two days, with traffic diverted through a private neighborhood, because LIPA crews couldn't make it out.

Woodson's recommendation: Cut wait times by detailing individual crews of up to 10 LIPA linemen and tree trimmers to each of the 13 Long Island towns as a storm is unfolding. His crews, like Islip's, were fully staffed and ready. They had to move to other, sometimes less-critical jobs until LIPA crews were available.

Town: Let's plan ahead

Having LIPA crews on hand is a proven strategy, said Hempstead spokesman Mike Deery.

"One of the things we pressed for and received later in the restoration was having LIPA personnel assigned directly to the Town of Hempstead," Deery said. "We found that could be helpful in coordinating future storms."

Massapequa Park Mayor James Altadonna said LIPA needs to determine early on which areas are worst hit and to dispatch more crews there. He speaks from experience -- 90 percent of the village lost power, and getting LIPA to respond took two days of calls up the chain of command to the governor's office.

"Let's all start on a level playing field, see where the damages are, assess it and bring equipment in where it's needed the most," Altadonna said.

Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko said improvement needs to come soon.

"LIPA needs to mount a quicker response to service outages, coordinate their efforts with local cleanup crews and do a better job of communicating with municipalities and their own customers," Lesko said. "We need to get all these issues on the table now, so everyone can do a better job when the next hurricane hits."

LIPA fall calendar:

As LIPA trustees prepare to vote Oct. 6 on the utility's future structure, there are numerous events and forums for information and discussion. Here are five key ones open to the public:

Sept. 15: LIPA Strategic Review Public Information and Input Session: 4 p.m. at Farmingdale College, Roosevelt Hall, Little Theater, 2350 Broadhollow Rd., Farmingdale

Sept. 16: LIPA Trustees Special meeting: 10 a.m., Omni Conference Center, 333 Earle Ovington Blvd., Uniondale

Sept. 22: State Senate Investigations Committee hearing: 9:45 a.m., Nassau Legislature, 1550 Franklin Ave., Mineola

Sept 22: LIPA Trustees meeting: noon, Omni Conference Center

Oct. 6: Special Board of Trustees Meeting: 10 a.m., Omni Conference Center

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the date on which Tropical Storm Irene struck and the date on which LIPA gave Islip Town clearance to remove trees.