The chief operating officer of a utility company heavily criticized for its response to Superstorm Sandy is stepping down.
The Long Island Power Authority announced Tuesday that Michael Hervey had tendered his resignation, effective at the end of the year. Hervey has been with LIPA for 12 years.
LIPA has come under withering criticism since Sandy knocked out power to more than a million of its customers on Oct. 29, both for how long it was taking to get power restored and for poor communication with customers.
There are about 10,000 outages in Nassau and Suffolk counties, just east of New York City, and LIPA officials have said they hope to have most of them resolved by Wednesday.
The company said Tuesday that 99 percent of those customers that can safely get power have it restored. But 35,000 customers that suffered significant flood damage need repairs on their properties before power can come back.
A state report criticized LIPA in June for poor customer communications after last year’s Hurricane Irene. The Department of Public Service noted LIPA’s major problems in telling customers estimated power restoration times, faulting its computer system, which a consultant had found deficient in 2006.
LIPA acknowledged that customers weren’t getting the information they needed, partly because of the system, which it is updating. Hervey said Monday that LIPA “accelerated that process” after Irene but it’s still an 18-month to two-year procedure.
“We would have liked to have had it up and running for now,” he said, “but it’s just such a large magnitude computer system that it takes that long.”
Hervey said the company would work with customers over the next several weeks as they get their homes repaired.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced an investigation into how utility companies prepared for Sandy, which killed more than 100 people in 10 states but hit New York and New Jersey the hardest, and how they handled the aftermath.
“From Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, to Hurricane Sandy, over the past two years New York has experienced some of the worst natural disasters in our state’s history,” Cuomo said. “As we adjust to the reality of more frequent major weather incidents, we must study and learn from these past experiences to prepare for the future.”
(AP)
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5 Responses
“good enough for government work”
People need to grow up & understand that this was a freak storm and there is no way to expect a company to be prepared for a storm like this. It happens, suck it up and be adults you dont always have to blame someone for everything deal with it!
The minority spoke and got what they wanted.
Few if any could have done better under the circumstances.
For LIPA they say a little more than 1 million customers were without power two weeks ago…today less than 40,000…with a majority of them needing, inspections, minor or major repairs before the power can be turned on. The power is at the street, but just not in the house because of the
To warrant the complaints someone needs to show us how
If you don’t think LIPA is dysfunctional, you aren’t a LIPA customer. Yes, we know this was a major storm, and yes, we know LIPA’s service area was hard-hit. That’s no excuse for the lack of communication, the contradictions, and the wasted labor that were the direct result of LIPA’s incompetence.
Example 1: My next door neighbor called to ask about her power. They said she was in a flood zone. I called. They said the flood zone started several blocks west of us.
Example 2: People who had no damage and had their power restored were told their power would be cut off again until they got an electrician to certify that they had no damage. It took a politician’s intervention to prevent this idiocy.
Example 3: LIPA told people that the NYC Buildings Department had to certify their electrical system was undamaged. The Buildings Department denied it.
Example 4: Somebody I know was talking to a utility worker from out of state. The worker said they report to the job at 6:30 and don’t get their work order until 11:00, so they’re just hanging out for 4.5 hours.
One other thing. Yesterday morning I sent this to Mr. Hervey. He resigned yesterday afternoon. I claim full credit.
Subject: I think you need to change your biography on the website
Date: November 13, 2012 9:18:15 AM EST
To: [email protected]
It says:
In addition, he has implemented storm hardening policies and capital expenditure programs, which have made LIPA the top most reliable overhead utility in the State.