Long Beach residents cope without electricity

Before last Saturday's storm, Joel Greifenberger's business had slowed to the point where he was working one day a week with a couple of employees. But the owner of the Long Beach-based Valley Tree Service has since put a dozen workers out in the field for at least 12 hours a day to cut up trees downed by the weekend's hurricane-force winds and rain.

The storm saturated the ground and flooded low-lying areas, knocking down trees that took power lines with them and leaving 250,000 people without electricity on Long Island.

"This is the storm that doesn't even have a name, and this is the worst I've ever seen in western Nassau County after 30 years in business," Greifenberger said. "The destruction has been right across the board."

Scott Kemins, commissioner of the Long Beach Fire Department, said there were sporadic, localized power outages throughout the city, the result of downed wires or transformers in particular neighborhoods. "It's not like it was a widespread problem," Kemins said.

But certain neighborhoods, like the West End, absorbed the brunt of the storm. During its height, roughly 15,000 people lost power. The Long Island Power Authority called in crews from Massachusetts and Connecticut to work in the West End, where on Monday and Tuesday they were still trying to restore power to Vermont and Kentucky streets and Louisiana and Tennessee avenues, according to city officials. Beach maintenance crews worked around the clock clearing trees and other debris to allow LIPA to replace poles and wires.

At a Monday press conference, LIPA President Kevin Law said the company sent out four times as many employees as it does during a normal storm, with help from crews from upstate New York, New England, Pennsylvania, Canada and as far away as Indiana and Michigan. Law said LIPA expected to restore power to all residents no later than Wednesday night.