Residents ask: Where's the power?

The question for Long Islanders enduring yet another day of electrical outages was: Who's got the power, and how can I get some?

The unplugged crowded into libraries, coffee emporiums, bookstores and special rooms set up by town halls in search of outlets and Wi-Fi. Most brought laptops and cellphones, some took along their gaming devices and a few looking to breathe easier hooked up their nebulizers.

"I don't think I've ever seen this building so full," said librarian Michele Lipson at The Bryant Library in Roslyn. "There was a different energy to this. It was almost desperation after two days of not having power. It was, 'I need help.' "

The Northport Public Library typically has 10 to 15 visitors using its Wi-Fi at any one time. But Tuesday, there were as many as 150 on simultaneously, and thousands during the course of the day, said Anthony Martocello, the library's network system administrator.

"It's a godsend to me," said Geraldine Scully, 68, a Northport widow there Tuesday using a library computer to tell relatives in Ireland by email that she was safe.

Jennifer Marcotrigiano, a telecom auditor from Northport, was staring intently at her laptop. She hadn't been able to work until "it clicked: What about the library? I'll be in 'til the power comes up, every single day."

The library purchased extra power strips Monday to accommodate the crowds flocking in to recharge devices, check emails and get work done. It was so busy that the small cafe there ran out of food.

The Bryant Library also was a refuge for the powerless, including a family that brought in its own power strip to charge iPads, cellphones and a Nintendo DS.

"A girl from a bridal party called to ask if she could use the bathroom to blow-dry her hair," said Lipson, adding it was uncertain if she actually came in.

At East Meadow Public Library, director Carole Probeyahn said, "We had a couple who had just lost their power in their home and the husband needed to use a nebulizer every four hours." A nebulizer produces a medicated mist inhaled by people with respiratory problems.

Starbucks branches, which offer free Wi-Fi access, also were jammed. On Willis Avenue in Roslyn Heights, it was so crowded Monday that people were sitting on the floor, managers there said.

At another Starbucks on Stewart Avenue in Garden City, David Laufer, 34, of Stewart Manor, was job-hunting on his laptop as he charged his cellphone. A few seats away, Sanjula Singh, 22, of Hempstead, viewed online lecture videos and slides for her classes at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in Old Westbury, where classes were canceled Tuesday.

But even as the powerless coped any way they could, people pined for the return of electricity at home.

Donna Hall of Northport, who went to her local library to pay her bills online, said, "I feel very helpless, anxious, just very, very strange."

The loss of connection, from social networking to light switches, was getting to her, even at bedtime: "I'm uncomfortable going to sleep because it's so quiet and dark. I usually go to sleep to the TV set. I can't do quiet."