'Learning What We're Capable Of': How Levittown Coped with Sandy Power Outages

More than 80 percent of LIPA customers lost power in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and many remained in the dark for several days, with a few waiting well more than a week for power to be restored. 

On the one year anniversary of Sandy, we asked readers on our Facebook page how long they were without power and how they coped. Here's a few of the responses:

Rhonda Carota: 16 long days... We coped with the help of awesome neighbors who had power and family. NEVER want to do that again!

Patricia Tahaney: 16 short hours!

John Leonardis Pizzaia: 14 days for no real reason in Wantagh.

Brian O'Leary: 2-3 weeks and I stayed at my grandmother's house because she got her power back before me.

Jennifer Roth: Eight days and was tough since my dog developed bronchitis right after the storm. We now have a generator.

Dawn Rathgeber West: Two days, and when we got it back I opened my home for people to wash, shower and charge up.

John Moran: 15 days and a lot of love. Wink wink.

Eileen Price: 12 days. It was tough because I had a 1-year old and also had my sister and her family staying with us because they lost their home. We got through it because we realized how lucky we were to still have our home and each other.

Tara Michele Lynch: 13 days with an infant and breast pumping in the car. 

Louis Isnardi: 15 days.

Katherine Booton Schumacher: 14 days. People across the street had power. My whole block had power except my house and two others. It was the transformer and not considered a priority. I put neon poster boards all over the trees in front of my house and a truck stopped. It took them two minutes to fix. I owe Illinois and Missouri a huge favor. During the two weeks I almost went crazy. This morning the power went out. I almost called a real estate agency and put my house up for sale just to get away from here.

Cathy Schaefer: Nine days without power. Used our wood stove for heat, to cook, and to heat water for bathing. It was rough, but we sure learned what we're capable of.

We'd love to hear your Sandy story. Here’s how you can share.

Visit the My Sandy Story blog here and click on the open text box under the heading to create a post.

Or, from the homepage, follow these steps:

• Sign in to your Patch. (Click “Join” if you don’t have an account yet.)
• Click the "Blogs" tab, near the top of the homepage and then locate the My Sandy Story blog in the left-hand column. Click on it.
• Click in the box that says, “Write a new post” and then click on “Article” at the top.
• Give your post a headline, enter the body of the story and upload your photos.
• Click “Post now.”