Thousands Still Without Power In NY; Central Islip Man Charged With Making Bomb Threat Against LIPA
EAST MEADOW, NY (CBSNewYork/AP) -- More than 50,000 New Yorkers are still without power a week after Tropical Storm Irene hit the state.
On Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced progress made in various parts of the state. Almost 100 percent of Con Edison customers' power was back. Only 36 households were still in the dark.
But Long Island, one of the hardest hit areas, still has 37,000 clients waiting for LIPA to turn on the power.
LIPA crews have been making their way across Long Island, but many residents have become frustrated with the time it's taken to have their power restored.
Police say a man in Nassau County has been charged with phoning in a bomb threat against LIPA.
Police say Rajiv Pandey called a TV news station on Friday and threatened to place a bomb at a company facility.
Investigators searched more than 30 locations but did not find a bomb. They say the call was made from Pandey's cell phone.
Police say the 33-year-old was frustrated because his power was out.
The Central Islip resident was charged with falsely reporting an incident and scheduled to be arraigned Saturday in Hempstead.
Meanwhile, residents in Centerport may finally be getting their power turned back on.
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Saturday morning, the roar of LIPA trucks brought Eleanor McGinn and her husband out of their home in Centerport. After a week of no power, McGinn was happy to see crews in her neighborhood.
"It's been a week but it was a deadly storm," she said. "You know someone is first and someone has to be last."
She said without power, they've had to come up with a new schedule for the week.
"We get up in the morning, make some coffee on the gas stove and then we would go for ice, get some chores done outside and then go to bed early," she said. "That was the only problem. We went to bed fairly early."
It's also been a very long week for residents living on Jeffery Avenue in East Meadow who have had no power since Irene hit.
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Resident Robert Clyde said he's not mad about the power outage, just bored. "It does get boring at night. I don't know what our ancestors did," said Clyde. "There's nothing to do. You sit around and read and sleep."
Kathy Linzaro says she hopes power will finally be back on this weekend.
"It is to the point where we do need to get it on because we do have a lot of health issues on the block," she said.
The power had been restored to parts of East Meadow earlier in the week.
Parts of upstate New York are also still in the dark. NYSEG reported more than 6,000 outages and Central Hudson almost 9,000.
What do you think of the power companies' response to Irene? Sound off below in our comments section...
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