LIPA Completing Nor’easter Storm Restorations

Uniondale - April 16, 2007 - The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) called out extra repair crews in response to yesterday’s Nor’easter that hit Long Island with heavy rains and high winds and wind gusts. Today, LIPA’s crews will continue to make storm-related service restorations and expects to have all outages restored by later this afternoon.

Since mid-night April 15 and through this morning, a total of nearly 18,500 LIPA customers across its service area experienced a service disruption as a result of the unusually strong storm. So far, some 17,617 customers have been returned to service, and about 900, most of these from this morning, are being worked on today.

Approximately 89% of the customers who experienced a storm-related outage were returned to service within four hours of less.

The peak number of customers out at any one time occurred at 11PM on April 15, when some 6,102 customers were without service.

Over 450 repairs jobs have been completed by some 776 field and supervisory personnel working 16-hour shifts to replace poles, repair power lines, remove trees from downed power lines and poles, replace fuses and reset transformers.

LIPA also had extra Call Center representatives on hand to take more than 7,600 storm-related calls. Some 763 customers received call backs to provide restoration information updates and to verify some restorations.

LIPA also stationed emergency response personnel at the Emergency Operations Centers operated by New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties to help expedite any storm-related emergencies involving LIPA’s electric system.

“The field crews, supervisory personnel, and Call Center representative all did a fantastic job under some difficult conditions,” said LIPA CEO and President Richard M. Kessel. “We’re very pleased that we were able to get customers back quickly and to minimize any inconveniences.”

LIPA Customers should call 1-800-490-0075 if they experience an outage.

LIPA customers are also encouraged to visit LIPA’s Storm Center on LIPA’s Web site www.lipower.org for updated weather reports, electric outage information and tips to stay prepared for weather emergencies.

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LIPA Contact Information:
Media Relations: (516) 719-9892
Media Pager: (516) 525-LIPA
media.relations@lipower.org

LIPA News Center
http://www.lipower.org/newscenter