The following is via the Queens Chronicle:
The Rockaways won’t have electricity back for seven weeks, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall claimed she has been told by LIPA.
In an interview with 1010 WINS radio, Marshall said the reason she was given was that a transformer had blown.
The interviewer, believed by this reporter to be John Montone, also asked Marshall if she knew anything about gasoline deliveries coming into Queens. She answered by saying that Modells was providing clothing to victims of the storm. When the interviewer said that he was asking about gasoline and repeated the question, she said Gov. Cuomo had promised free gasoline to storm victims.
During the interview Marshall also said that she had spent the last four days in the Rockaways, that the aftermath of the storm “has consumed my life” and that people are putting items damaged by basement flooding out on the streets for the Sanitation Department to pick up, something she said doesn’t look good.
But, she said, the people remain in good spirits.
The interviewer also asked Marshall about any contact she had had with federal officials about the post-Sandy crisis. He pointed out that President Obama promised that any municipal official who calls the administration for assistance will receive a return call within 15 minutes, and repeatedly told Marshall that if she calls and does not get a call back within the promised time, 1010 WINS wants to know about it.
This reporter heard the interview at a little before 2 a.m. Sunday morning (what would have been a little before 3 a.m. if not for the return to Eastern Standard Time). It was not clear when on Saturday it had been recorded.
Mayor Bloomberg on Saturday blasted LIPA for not restoring power to the Rockaways more quickly, but made no mention of any seven-week time frame.
“The Rockaways were hardest hit by the storm, and when it comes to prioritizing, we think that they should be first in line,” the mayor said.
LIPA could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Source: Queens Chronicle)
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5 Responses
I heard the interview shortly after shabbos. It was flat out bizarre.
Lipa Shmeltzer you can do better
I feel bad for Lipa. Abi meleibt
I don’t know what she or the interviewer were smoking. If you go on the LIPA website, you can see that more than 90 percent of those without power were restored as of 5:00 PM Sunday. The remainder should be back on within 3-5 days depending on how much damage there was to local wires and poles. There are about 3 percent served by transformer stations that were totally flooded and destroyed and which have to be replaced in their entirety. Those could take as much as another week or 10 days. No one at LIPA has said SEVEN WEEKS. Maybe they how long after pesach comes shavuos.
i heard from a reliable source that she was only referring to breezy point.