With Hundreds Without Power, Residents, National Grid Wait For Plows

Many residents are saying that they are without power as a result of the blizzard but in most cases they will have to wait until roads are cleared before National grid can restore electricity, according to a company spokesperson.

Reports are coming in from Belle Terre, Port Jefferson and Mt. Sinai of residents waiting through the night without any power. Temperatures inside homes are plunging and people are worried about neighbors.

Jim Collier lives on Pinnacle Drive in Fairfield Landmark at Port Jefferson off Dark Hollow Road.

“Apartment is 49 degrees,” he wrote on Facebook when we asked if people had experienced power outages. “An infant lives below me and parents can't take her to a warm area.”

Dark Hollow Road seems to be a trouble spot.

Deanna Rubino-Monzon said she lives on that road and is without power.

“Yes no power,” she wrote. “Help.”

Belle Terre was especially hard hit. On Friday night, the Long Island Power Authority outage map reported 200 customers without electricity. As of Saturday afternoon the same storm map shows Port Jefferson has 221 homes without power, Belle Terre has 194 and Mt. Sinai has 42.

“I'm in Belle Terre,” write Kristin Gudzik Schombs. “I have no power, and our roads are not plowed. I'm not trying to leave the house, but it would be nice to at least have an update from LIPA as to when we will have power again.”

Diane Collins Eggerman said her my parents were told that power in Belle Terre would be restored by midnight on Feb. 10.

“That was after calling and hearing today,” he said. “So they don't know. Again.”

Other residents in a private Mt. Sinai community are saying that the plows can’t handle the amount of snow that has already fallen and they have no power to their homes.

Wendy Ladd, a National Grid representative said in an email that in order to restore power to communities, roads must be clear for trucks to get through.

“We need to have the roads plowed to access the job to do the restoration work,” she said.

She said that the company reports to municipalities when they need access to a road to fix power when it's not plowed.

“Yes we have been working closely with the county, state and town on plowing,” Ladd said.

Beth Colombo said she’s been in the dark since Friday.

“Fifteen hours of no power on an unplowed dead end street,” Colombo wrote.

Eileen Daly said everyone is struggling with the same issues.

“As far as getting out… no plows, no reason to shovel,” she said. “Where would we go anyway, and I live on a dead end street too.”

Diane Collins Eggerman said her parents on Campell Street have no power but if they could leave they could go to someone’s home who has.

“If they could get out, they'd go two houses down where their neighbor has power,” she said.