For two days the Smith Haven Mall has been a shadow on the landscape of the Lake Grove/Smithtown/Stony Brook area, an eerie sight for locals used to seeing lights pour from out of the region's largest shopping mall.
On Wednesday night, they came back.
Power was restored to Smith Haven, the nearby Pier One/Trader Joe's shopping center and the Waldbaums/AMC Theaters center across the highway after being knocked out by Hurricane Sandy on Monday. Traffic lights on Route 347 near the shopping district, dark for two days, blinked yellow and red on Wednesday night, though Suffolk County police officers still blocked motorists from making left-hand turns on the major roadway.
Businesses seemed to have power restored going east on 347 until hitting Stony Brook Road, where the strip mall featuring Starbucks and Duane Reade was still in the dark.
It was not immediately clear when the businesses with restored power would open, though earlier Wednesday the Stony Brook Waldbaums did in fact open to customers, although the store was dark, as long as they were buying with cash.
Patch will update this with more information as it becomes available.
