PSEG Long Island wrapping up power restorations

PSEG Long Island was wrapping up its largest outage restoration to date Thursday night, with 1,400 workers dispatched to handle customers who remained without power from Tuesday's storm.

Only 15 of the original 82,000 customers affected by the storm did not have their power back Thursday night, PSEG said.

"We've got everything covered," PSEG Long Island President Dave Daly said of crews working on the remaining outages. "By the end of the night we'll have everybody back."

Daly said a small number of outages could remain, but local crews will handle all that work. Some 800 off-Island contractors, including 600 high-voltage workers, are to be released Friday, Daly said.

"It is possible that there could be a single customer here or there who says, 'My power is not on.' It is possible there could be some stragglers," he said. Customers should call PSEG at 800-490-0025 to report outages.

The intense storm did some of its most serious damage on the North Shore in central and western Suffolk, including Setauket and surrounding areas. Daly said a dozen high-intensity work areas Thursday required 20 bucket trucks and as many crews to restore power to scores of customers.

PSEG was still assessing the total cost of the outage and didn't provide a figure for the cost of the restoration.

PSEG set up makeshift distribution areas in the affected areas, and even made home deliveries of ice and water for customers who couldn't get out, including critical care customers who needed ice to keep medicine cool, said spokesman Jeff Weir.

Even after the final customers are restored, Daly said PSEG expects to have at least a week of cleanup work, including making permanent some of the temporary fixes meant to restore power quickly.

"There's going to be some cleanup," Daly said, speaking from an area of Setauket that was hardest hit. He said stacks of toppled trees several feet high lined the roadways. "It really looks incredible."

Another big part of the effort has involved keeping outside crews fed, housed and working, and Daly said the effort went off well.

"There haven't been crews sitting around," he said.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.