East Meadow Residents Say They Feel Abandoned by LIPA

Brandy Baciak Cowell said that her son's only wish for his sixth birthday on Thursday is to get the power in their home restored after living in 10 days of darkness.

"It is below 50 degrees in my house and I have a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, it is unbearable" Baciak Cowell said on East Meadow Patch's Facebook page on Wednesday. "I haven't seen a LIPA truck yet."

Thousands have remained without power more than a week and said that they feel abandoned by the Long Island Power Authority. On Wednesday, many expressed their anger via phone calls, emails and Facebook.

"It's ridiculous," Julie Papa said. "Our outages were due to down trees and wires, not flooding. I can understand why the south shore is taking so long because there is a risk of fires from the water damaged electricity. What is the hold up over some trees and wires? Ten days is excessive."

Christy Louzeiro said that she has contacted LIPA and has not gotten a straight answer in days.

"Social media has become the main source of news for those of us without power," she said. "There is no communication what so ever and no one is stepping up and telling us anything. There is a lot of panic because of rumors."

Louzeiro's husband, Roy, agreed.

"Our local officials are failing us," he said. "They should be speaking out."

According to an article in the East Meadow Herald, County Legislator Norma Gonsalves, who regained electrical power at her East Meadow home on Sunday, said that she is not happy with the way LIPA is handling the problem.

“It’s a very sad situation,” she said. “I am extremely frustrated, I’m disappointed and I am angry. I feel for my constituents and I feel for my neighbors.”

Assemblyman Tom McKevitt, an East Meadow resident, told the Herald that LIPA's performance was "horrendous."

“They’ve done a horrible, horrible, failure of a job,” he said. “They failed to prepare for the storm beforehand."

LIPA posted a statement on it's website that said that the organization was working on its goal of restoring power to 90 percent of all customers affected by Hurricane Sandy by Wednesday night.

East Meadow residents however, don't believe it. 

"The LIPA person I spoke to today essentially told me you won't have power back for another week or more," Alisa Jodi said on Facebook. "They have not even touched my area which is behind the New York Sports Club. Our substation hasn't been repaired, none of the lines picked up, nothing. We are being ignored and it's unacceptable."

Sharon Oderwald said that she has a 5-year-old daughter with cancer who is having a procedure on Monday. She said that she called LIPA and they told her that she had to make other arrangements.

"Truly if it was just me I could handle it, but I'm broken up over my daughter who on top of everything else is exhibiting more and more anxiety," she said.

Louzeiro said the situation is beyond heartbreaking and frustrating.

"East Meadow is not a priority," she said. "We are homeless in our own homes."