Dear Port North Residents,
It goes without saying we have been through a series of difficult times culminating with the loss of power for many of us due to Tropical Storm Isaiah starting this past Tuesday, August 4th.
From the moment power went out and it was safe, the Village initiated our tree crews to clear our roads and remove trees that either fell or were leaning. Within hours, our streets were navigable, able to accommodate traffic and most importantly allow passage of emergency vehicles. Unfortunately, the loss of power is something we could not rectify within hours. However, given the forecasts and restoration timeline projection provided by PSEG, we initially did not feel this would be a sustained power loss for our Village. Obviously we were very wrong.
We established direct communication with the PSEG municipal hotline, which was supposed to provide the Village with Village-specific updates and estimates of when our Village would get its power back. The estimates for some streets went from Wednesday, then Thursday, then by Sunday evening. We are now almost a week removed from the initial outage and, frankly, for some there is still no meaningful estimates by PSEG. While I am told there are crews working on Radcliff, Soundview and Driftwood, we cannot confirm that power will be restored tonight. We can only hope.
Let me assure all of you that, despite what PSEG representatives or line crews say regarding not finding your house or area in the system, we are confident that PSEG is aware of the outages in Port North. It is unconscionable that the information provided by PSEG would suggest that they do not have your house number in the system, or you will be put into new status with longer estimates of repair. It is also unacceptable that many of us receive wrong estimates for restoration, or even worse tell us that we have power when we don’t, or don’t have power when we do. In sum, the communication effort by PSEG to all of our residents, as well as all of Long Island, was atrocious.
As said, the Village has been in constant contact with PSEG since last Tuesday, emailing them with the locations of all known outages received and any physical damage observed. Despite that, it has been almost impossible to receive any useful or accurate data to provide our residents regarding timelines for power restoration. To date, we have asked PSEG for an honest, realistic timeframe for restoration within our Village, specifically for Radcliff Ave, Sandy Court, parts of Soundview Dr., Angler Lane, Fishermans Dr. and Driftwood Drive. It appears there are two main circuits that power these areas. Once we receive any viable information that can be verified, we will pass it on to you either by a mass email or telephone message or individual messages. In addition, PSEG has stated they would be notifying our residents, either by phone, text, or in person of restoration times. This was something they were supposed to be doing once the power went out. Let us not forget that PSEG came in to take over our grid from LIPA, who themselves did a horrendous job communicating following Superstorm Sandy in 2012. We deserve more and we will hold them accountable.
Attached is a letter which was co-written by all of the Port Washington Peninsula Mayors to PSEG. On the peninsula, all are experiencing similar power outages and poor communication, and hope this letter will send a message that we all demand answers and action. The Village will also be re-convening our infrastructure committee, formed before Sandy to address the numerous outages the Village was experiencing prior to 2012. If you have interest in participating in the meetings, please let us know. We will also hold a Zoom call for all of our residents to attend a power forum and voice their concerns. PSEG representatives will be invited to attend. From there we will formally present to PSEG our concerns and demands to assure us this situation does not repeat itself. We also intend to find out more details about the electrical grid in the Village which was not readily provided to us after Superstorm Sandy despite numerous requests. We also intend to find out how PSEG can better communicate with us all and what we can do as a community to assist them in performing their work.
Port North, we live in a wonderful community and should not have to endure this discomfort, nor have to fear it might repeat itself every time inclement weather occurs. The Board and I will do everything in our power to strive to address the issues before us and give us the reliable power we deserve. As always, you can reach me at mayor@portwashingtonnorth.org with any questions or comments you have
Sincerely,
Mayor Bob
File attachments:
8-10-2020 Mayors Demand Storm Response Support-Final.pdf