Two congressmen from Long Island are asking the White House to send federal employees to Long Island to take the lead role in restoring power to a region where tens of thousands of people remain in the dark 12 days after Superstorm Sandy.

U.S. Reps. Peter King and Steve Israel said they were sending a letter Friday requesting that personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Department assume work of the Long Island Power Authority, whose work after the storm the congressmen called “abysmal.” They echoed the criticism expressed earlier by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“When the lights went off in Baghdad and the lights went off in Kabul, it was the Army Corps of Engineers that went into Baghdad and Kabul to turn the lights back on,” said Israel, a Democrat. “We don’t need to turn the lights back on in Kabul and Baghdad. We need to turn the lights back on in Plainview and Great Neck and the south shore.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and some Army Corps personnel have been on Long Island for more than a week, but King, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he wants additional resources sent in.

As of Friday evening, 150,000 homes and businesses on Long Island were without power. LIPA has said as many as 60,000 of those customers were severely damaged by flooding and would require extensive repairs before workers can begin to restore power. Some who had electricity restored in the days following Sandy lost power again after a nor’easter struck Wednesday night.

READ MORE: NBC NEW YORK