Long Island weather: Thousands without power in high winds

High winds and heavy rain pounded the region Monday, as gusts of nearly 70 mph took down trees and wires, and affected  more than 42,000 customers, officials said.

Gusts topped 68 mph in Orient, according to the National Weather Service in Upton, which said a high wind advisory remains in effect until 8 p.m. The rain, which ended early evening, reached 1.72 inches in Muttontown, the weather service said. 

The storm forced the closure of five mobile COVID-19 testing sites and damaged a commercial building on Milbar Boulevard in Farmingdale, officials said.

Suffolk Police responded to more than two dozen 911 reports of down trees or electrical wires from Melville to Rocky Point and Huntington to Ronkonkoma. Nassau police responded to a pole laying against a building in New Hyde Park, a tree down in Great Neck and wires in the roadway in Woodmere.

By early Monday evening, the storm had moved out of many areas of Long Island.

PSEG Long Island said some 42,000 customers had been impacted during the full course of the storm, from early Monday morning until Monday evening, including just under 7,000 who were still without power as of 9:30 p.m. Monday.

Windy conditions slowed some restorations, PSEG spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said, with some customers not expected to be fully back online until Tuesday evening.

The company was helped by some 250 off-island crews to assist the local workforce of around 1,000 workers, all of whom were working with new COVID-19 protocols of social distancing, said Daniel Eichhorn, PSEG Long Island president.

Outside crews no longer bunk two to a room and the company had to work with shuttered local hotels to free up rooms, he said. A dozen members of one PSEG yard in Nassau were quarantined for 14 days more than a week ago after one was exposed to the virus, he said.

The utility said most outages would be repaired Tuesday. PSEG spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said the timeframe was based on the amount of “work we have encountered at this time and consideration for some work wait time based on wind.” Those times could be “firmed up as winds die down and the incoming job rate reduces later this afternoon.”

Long Island’s grid has seen the benefits of a $730 million federally financed storm hardening effort that recently concluded, beefing up and raising substations, poles, wires and technology to lessen the chance of outages.

Strong, gusting winds will remain Tuesday, though the weather service is predicting mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-to-upper 50s. Showers return Wednesday, when temperatures reach only into the high 40s.

Sun is expected again Thursday and Friday, though showers are possible Friday night. Mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-to-upper 50s are on tap for next weekend.

With John Valenti and Joie Tyrrell

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com,mark.harrington@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert,

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.