More than 2,500 Still Without Power in Lindenhurst

Hurricane Sandy is finally gone, but thousands were left without power as a result of her wrath.

As of Friday morning LIPA is reporting more than 2,500 outages to customers in North Lindenhurst (795) and the Village (1,773) - which was devastated South of Montauk Highway, with officials estimating that 70 percent of homes down there might be uninhabitable as a result of the storm's record-high, eight-foot tidal/storm surge and flood waters.

That's down from more than 7,000 outages reported on Wednesday (2,722 in North Lindy and 4,392 in the Village).

Out of all of Babylon Town - which, as of Friday morning, still had almost 16,000 outages - Lindenhurst seems to be one of the areas with the most outages.

As of Tuesday nary a LIPA crew was to be found in all of Babylon Town, let alone Lindenhurst, though Village officials said LIPA came down to deenergize South of Montauk from the northern parts of the Village and the utility also restored the Lindenhurst substation on Cortland Street the same day.

However, it was slow going, and while New York State Assemblyman Bob Sweeney made a call on the Village's behalf on Tuesday, only one crew was sent to Lindenhurst on Wednesday.

And Deputy Mayor Kevin McCaffrey told Lindenhurst Patch on Wednesday that the crew is the only one dedicated to the Town of Babylon.

But that hasn't stopped the Village's Department of Public Works from clearing trees and debris from streets, going as far as it could on Tuesday to clear streets of trees, limbs and branches.

And when the LIPA crew showed up on Wednesday, the Village DPW made the most of it - and of LIPA contractor Asplundh, which was also deployed. The DPW was able to move ahead with the removal of trees entangled in wires across the Village.

There were 17 major street blockages involving large, downed trees and wires in the Village, and as of Thursday, all but one has been removed, according to Mayor Tom Brennan.

The last one, on South Third Street, invloves a tree on a house, and the Village is working with the homeowner to make sure it can be removed sooner rather than later, the mayor said.

On Wednesday night the LIPA crew was redeployed eslewhere in Babylon Town, McCaffrey said.

These steps have gone a long way to restore power in Lindenhurst, but there's still more to be done to get power back in the enitre community.

And while the DPW was continuing to remove tree limbs and branches and other debris - especially South of Montauk now that the flood waters have receded - for those entangled in wires it still needs LIPA's help to ensure the wires are deernergized.

Last year after Irene it took LIPA a couple of weeks to get everyone on Long Island back online - specifically in Lindenhurst it was a couple of weeks, as well.

And ahead of Sandy LIPA said for customers to expect to be without power for seven to 10 days after the storm.

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• Lindenhurst Schools Remain Closed Thursday and Friday
• Officials: Many Homes South of Montauk May Be Uninhabitable
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