LIPA Prepared to Respond to December Wind Storm
Extra Repair Crews Are Standing By
Call 1-800-490-0075 to Report Outages & Downed Power Lines
Uniondale, NY – December 1, 2006 – High winds and rain will move across Long Island Friday afternoon and into the evening. As a result, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) is anticipating the potential for electric outages across Long Island.
LIPA has been closely monitoring and tracking the storm system and is prepared to respond with extra repair crews and Call Center personnel working extended shifts over night and through the weekend.
“LIPA always takes an aggressively proactive approach to prepare for weather that could impact Long Island’s electric transmission and distribution system,” said LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel. “We’ve been monitoring the progress of this storm and have been making pre-storm preparations. We will have extra repair personnel available to respond
to any outages that may be caused by the high winds and winds gusts.”
LIPA anticipates that this weather system could cause between 25,000 to 30,000 outages across Long Island. High winds can cause weakened trees and tree limbs to fall bringing down power lines and causing outages. Storm-related vehicular accidents can also cause outages when cars and trucks skid off rain-slicked local roads and hit utility poles.
“Play it safe,” said Mr. Kessel. “Don’t go near any – let me underscore any – downed lines. You can never be sure if it’s a power line, phone line or cable TV line. But it could be energized by coming in contact with a power line.”
Mr. Kessel noted that on Friday LIPA will field 440 electric service and tree trim personnel and 535 personnel on Friday evening. Theses crews are scheduled to work 16-hour shifts starting today and through Saturday to make repairs and restore service as quickly as possible.
Additional Call Center representatives are also set to take wire down calls from emergency service personnel and customers.
LIPA’s automated 21st Century Automatic Phone Answering System will also be utilized to expedite the receipt of outage calls from customers. The 21st Century system, which can process about 100,000 calls per hour, automatically registers the location of an outage as soon as the customer’s call is recorded by the system.
Call LIPA at 1-800-490-0075 to report an outage or downed line.
LIPA encourages customers to prepare for the possibility of a power outage by taking the following actions now:
* Have a battery-powered radio or TV available;
* Have flashlights and extra batteries readily accessible for all family members;
* Have a supply of canned food with a manual can opener available;
* If you have an electric water pump, keep spare containers of water for cooking and washing;
* Keep a non-electronic phone in your home – phone lines often remain operational even during power outages;
* If you decide to use a standby generator, have it installed by a licensed electrician and never operate it inside your garage or home;
* If an outage occurs, disconnect appliances and sensitive electronic equipment to prevent any possible damage that could be caused by momentary power spike that could occur when service is restored.
For additional storm preparedness information, on-line outage reports, links to weather sites and emergency response agencies, and LIPA’s real-time storm outage reports go to www.lipower.org.
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric utility, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System on Long Island and provides electric service to over 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. In terms of customers served, LIPA is the 3rd largest municipal electric utility in the nation
and the 6th largest in terms of electricity delivered. LIPA does not provide natural gas service or own any on-island electric generating assets.
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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
