Power goes out in Long Beach

A power outage struck Long Beach, knocking out energy in more than 1,000 homes and buildings, including a wing at the Long Beach Medical Center, last Friday morning.

An estimated 1,063 homes and buildings with meters went dark in neighborhoods north of Park Avenue, on both the east and west sides of Long Beach Boulevard, as well as an area in Lido Beach, at about 7:55 a.m. on Nov. 13.

Long Island Power Authority restored power to 1,000 homes within 36 minutes and 57 homes within 137 minutes after the outage, according to LIPA spokesperson Elizabeth Flager.

“I’m just surprised,” said Tommy Beirne, an East Hudson Street resident, who lost power at about 8:30 a.m. but had it restored within 45 minutes. “I didn’t think it was that windy out.”

But Flager noted that stormy weather that day had nothing to do with the outage. “The cause was a faulty connection to the transformer,” she said.

Cheryl Chapman, an assistant administrator at Long Beach Medical Center on East Bay Drive, said that power was lost in one outpatient area and the west wing building, which houses the emergency department, a medical unit and the nursing home. While the outpatient area was without a back-up generator, the west building’s generator kept power running for more than four hours.

“We’re just carrying on with normal operating procedures,” Chapman told the Herald while in the midst of the blackout. “We kind of prepare for this and it is why we have our generator in place.”

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