Power restored to more than 95 percent who were left in the dark by Tuesday’s powerful storm, utility says

Less than 5 percent of customers who lost power in Tuesday’s severe storm are still without power, PSEG-LI reported this morning. As of 4:15 a.m., PSEG said 3,617 customers remain in the dark— 2,685 are in the Town of Brookhaven, with the largest clusters in the north shore hamlets of Old Field, Poquott and Port Jefferson.

About 100 customers are without power in Riverhead Town, nearly all of them in Wading River. Another 200 are still out in Southold Town, with the largest numbers in Mattituck, Cutchogue, Southold and Peconic.

PSEG has ceased ice and water distribution at its Riverhead office. It will continue to distribute ice and water to customers today at its Coram office (in the SCWA complex at 2045 Route 112). Charging stations are also available there.

“We’re making progress and we hope to have everybody back by the end of today,” PSEG media rep Elizabeth Flagler said this morning. She added that PSEG will have 1,400 personnel out in the field today working until all have power restored.

“The outages we’re working on now are more difficult; there’s been more damage,” Flagler said. Immediately after a storm, she said, PSEG works on larger outages, where they can get “more bang for the buck.” But next, workers focus on critical care and individual outages that may be more time intensive.

For example, she said, yesterday, one crew worked on a single outage for eight hours, with only 34 customers returned to service.

The intensity of the storm that developed over the area in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, Aug. 4 caught forecasters and everyone else by surprise. The storm produced straight-line winds ranging from 70 to 90 mph, the National Weather Service in New York said yesterday.

“Damaging winds are often called ‘straight-line’ winds to differentiate the damage they cause from tornado damage,” according to the National Weather Service. “Most thunderstorm winds that cause damage at the ground are a result of outflow generated by a thunderstorm downdraft.”

The storm downed dozens of large trees, which in turn took down power lines throughout the area, leaving some 85,000 PSEG-LI customers without power across Long Island.

The weather service released the video below depicting reflectivity (on the left) and velocity (right) as the storm moved from west to east across Long Island. It shows wind speeds of 90 mph over eastern sections of the North Fork and 40-60 mph winds elsewhere. The NWS recommends viewing the video in full screen or theater mode. The data shown on the video was collected from 3:33 and 6:29 a.m. Tuesday.