LIPA Responds Quickly to Restore Outages in the Wake of Tropical Storm Ernesto
Uniondale, NY—September 3, 2006— The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto battered Long Island this weekend uprooting trees and taking down power lines. With wind gusts reaching over 57MPH accompanied by torrential rains, the Long Island Power Authority’s (LIPA) restoration crews worked tirelessly to restore service to customers that were affected by service interruptions.
Since Saturday at 12:00 AM, 127,799 LIPA customers were affected by this weather system at various times. The peak number of outages (49,898) occurred at 5 PM on Saturday, with 50% of all customer outages (64,266) occurring between 2PM and 6PM on Saturday.
800 field personnel working 16 hour shifts replaced poles, repaired power lines, removed trees from LIPA facilities, replaced fuses and reset transformers. Due to the hard work of these dedicated men and women approximately 86% of all outages were restored in less than four hours.
 “This success is a result of LIPA investing over $ 2 billion dollars in upgrades to Long Island’s electric system,†said LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel. We all owe a thank-you to the men and women of our restoration crews, who work so hard in very difficult and often dangerous conditions to keep the island’s lights on. On Saturday during the height of the storm, restoration crews restored a remarkable 102,307 customer outages.â€
LIPA’s customers are encouraged to visit LIPA’s Storm Center on LIPA’s Web site www.lipower.org. LIPA’s Storm Center features updated weather reports, electric outage information and tips to stay prepared for weather emergencies.
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric system, owns the retail electric Transmission and Distribution System (T&D) 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
LIPA Storm Center
http://www.lipower.org/stormcenter
