Residents express frustration with Isaias response outside PSEGLI HQ

Tempers flared outside PSEGLI's headquarters in Hicksville Thursday as more than 100,000 residents are still without power.

News 12 Staff

Aug 7, 2020, 12:03 AM

Updated 1,527 days ago

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Tempers flared outside PSEGLI's headquarters in Hicksville Thursday as more than 100,000 residents are still without power.
The utility was giving away free ice and water to Long Islanders who lost power during Tropical Storm Isaias, but it was clear nothing could cool off frustrated customers.
Dozens of people showed up to confront PSEG workers after spending two days without power and answers.
Isaias knocked out power for close to half a million PSEG customers on the Island, leaving many fed up by the inability to report downed wires and outages.
"It's been very frustrating," said Jeff Flynn. "None of their technology has worked. Their phone system's been down. I've been trying all day today to get through on the internet just to try to get to their service. So the servers are either broken or overloaded."
PSEG's outage map has been incorrect by more than 100,000 customers.
Susan Tenny, of Farmingdale, says the power utility took her address off the outage map -- even though her house is still in the dark. Tenny says she repeatedly called PSEG to report the error.
"When you call, you go through a whole automated process and eight minutes in, they say OK we're going to transfer you to a representative and then you get disconnected. And I did that five times," Tenny said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo called PSEG's response to Isaias a "failure" and ordered an investigation into how the utility prepared for and handled the storm.
Long Island lawmakers are also calling for a probe into the communication breakdown.
"With communications, we need to take a look at that so residents can have a better understanding of when their power is going to be turned back on," said Legislator Denise Ford.
PSEG's top brass says the utility has made improvements in communications, but they admit their system is not 100% there yet.
"It's not the experience that we want for our customers. It's not the experience our customers on Long Island deserve," said President and COO Daniel Eichhorn.