Isaias came calling this week and tens of thousands of Long Island residents are still without power five days after the storm blew through — toppling trees, downing limbs and generally wreaking havoc with the electric system across Long Island, leaving more than 420,000 customers without electricity.
Locally, there were more than 50 downed trees and over 2,600 customers left without power by Isaias. Hundreds in Riverhead Town remain in the dark today.
During the height of the storm, an Aquebogue man was injured when a large tree came down and crushed his mobile home.
PSEG Long Island’s response to the storm has been roundly criticized by residents and government officials alike. The governor, who called it a “failed” response, has ordered an investigation.
PSEG had a colossal communications system failure that rendered it impossible for customers to report outages by phone or text and the company’s website went down during and after the storm. It’s online outage map, intended as a tool for customers to track progress in restoration efforts and get updated estimates for their own service returning, has not been accurate since the storm struck, according to PSEG-Long Island. The company says that’s because it is making such rapid progress restoring customers, the map can’t keep up. I don’t personally recall that ever happening before and given the pace of the restoration efforts this week, PSEG’s claim seems questionable at best.
PSEG says the communication issues did not affect how quickly and accurately it learned of outages or dispatched and coordinated crews. We’ve heard reports that would call this claim into question as well, such as line crews waiting a couple hours for tree-trimming crews to arrive.
See more Isaias coverage.
Let’s hope whatever went wrong with the storm response is quickly remedied. It is hurricane season, after all. It’s only a matter of time before Long Island finds itself in the path of a hurricane. The last time a hurricane made landfall here was in August 2011 when Hurricane Irene made its ninth and final landfall in Coney Island.
Isaias, incidentally was the ninth named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season this year. The rest of the names for 2020 — which may see 13-19 named storms in the Atlantic, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — are Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.
In other news this week, COVID-19 infections in New York remained at their lowest since the first infection was confirmed in March. In New York, 31 people died of the disease in the past week, bringing total COVID fatalities in New York to 12,195, according to the State Health Department. There was one death in Suffolk County this week.
Local government & politics
Riverhead Town authorized the purchase of two buildings and an option agreement on a third to create a town square on East Main Street. The town board vote was unanimous to acquire the properties and authorize $5.5 million in borrowing to pay for acquisition and demolition of two of the buildings.
Political parties had to hastily select candidates to run for the town justice position left vacant by the death of longtime Town Justice Allen Smith on July 25. The Republican, Conservative and Independence parties tapped former town supervisor Sean Walter as their candidate. Democrats are running newcomer Joseph DiBenedetto, a lawyer and retired Pace University professor of legal studies and taxation.
School news
Schools in New York this week got the go-ahead to reopen for in-person instruction. Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Friday. Riverhead filed its re-entry plan a week ago, as required, and it, along with reopening plans filed be every other school district in the state, is being reviewed by state officials. The plan has met with criticism by parents who say it makes arranging for child care extremely difficult because the days when children will be at school vary from one week to the next.
School board members, meanwhile, are wrestling with the contingent budget, trying to come up with a viable plan to save varsity sports and high school music performances. The district has to trim $2.3 million off the proposed budget twice rejected by district taxpayers in order to live within the $144.8 million funding level allowed by law under a contingent budget for the current school year.
Community news
The Polish Town Civic Association has decided to sell its “Polonaise Park” site, where the group hosted a polka dance festival during its annual street fair. With interest in the polka festival waning — the organization didn’t hold the dance festival the past few years — and taxes and maintenance on the property becoming a burden, the Polish Town Civic decided to sell.
The Butterfly Effect Project has planted a community garden to help feed families in need.
Business news
Racing has returned to Riverhead Raceway, though COVID restrictions are making it difficult to break even, raceway partner Tom Gatz told RiverheadLOCAL in an interview this week.
Who opens a new restaurant in the most challenging economic time in modern history? An ambitious entrepreneur on a mission, that’s who. Riverhead welcomes Che Argentinian Steak House to Main Street.
Police news
Riverhead Police are investigating a reported armed robbery at a West Main Street deli
Police are participating in a statewide speed limit enforcement sweep this week.
Obituaries
Weekly stats
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