UPDATED: LIPA Reporting Local Outages Drop Below 900

Update, Saturday, 12:15 p.m.: LIPA is reporting that power outages in Three Village have dropped below 900, on the decline from the more than 1,000 outages reported earlier today.

While LIPA's outage map reports no more outages in Poquott and just 25 outages in Old Field, the Setauket-East Setauket area has 546 while Stony Brook has 279.

Update, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.: Over 1,000 LIPA customers are reported to be without power Saturday morning.

According to a LIPA outage map, the outages are relatively scattered throughout the hard-hit area, which saw some of the highest snowfall totals on Long Island, according to the National Weather Service. Totals of 24 to 29 inches were reported throughout the area.

Outages in Old Field and Poquott tapered off, with just a combined 75 between the two. South Setauket and East Setauket currently each have over 250 outages, while close to 400 are reported in Stony Brook.

Update, Friday, 10:15 p.m.: Long Island Power Authority is reporting that nearly 750 customers in the Three Village area are without power.

Three different neighborhoods in the area – one in East Setauket, one in Setauket, and one more in South Setauket – are all reporting outages of at least 150 customers.

Close to a dozen outages, each reporting less than five customers, are reported everywhere from East Setauket from South Setauket to Old Field.

Original story: Close to 250 homes in the Three Village area were reported to be without power as of 6:15 p.m. on Friday, as a strong blizzard began to wallop the area.

According to the Long Island Power Authority's storm map, most of the outages – over 150 – are centered in Poquott, and are expected to be restored by 9 p.m., while outages each reporting about 50 homes were noted in Old Field and Stony Brook. 

A couple of outages reporting less than a handful of affected customers were reported in Setauket and South Setauket.

Keep track of all local news and information related to the blizzard on this page.

National Grid President John Bruckner said Friday they expect about 100,000 power outages across Long Island from the storm, though outages are not expected to last more than 24 hours, he said.

LIPA put National Grid in charge of the storm response on Thursday – the first time it relinquished control in its history – after all-time lows in public faith in the utility due to its response the Hurricane Sandy in November.

Bruckner said the company has 700 high-voltage lineman and 250 tree-trimmers ready to act after the storm. In addition National Grid is upping the number of call-center personnel to provide better communication during and after the storm, Bruckner said.

National Grid has fully restocked its supplies of power lines, transformers and wires so that workers do not have to wait for shipments to come in, like they did during Superstorm Sandy.

“The resources we needed, we didn’t see until many days after Sandy. For this storm, they are on Long Island,” he said.

Bruckner also said that the company is monitoring the potential storm surge on Long Island’s North Shore, and has already sandbagged its equipment in case of flooding.

“We feel we’re in pretty good shape going into this storm,” Bruckner said.

The biggest concern for National Grid during the storm is not snow, but wind. Forecasters predict the New England nor'easter wind will range from 30 to 40 miles per hour with howling gusts hitting 60 miles per hour.

“This is not a typical storm. Usually, a storm comes in and out in an hour or two. This storm will last a couple days,” he said.

Bruckner said that National Grid will have 1,000 personnel on the ground early Saturday to assess the damage. Critical care customers including hospitals, nursing homes and sewage treatment plants will be attended to first. After that, areas with the most outages will be the focus, and lastly, the parts of the island with the least amount of outages.

Bruckner also said that National Grid has supplied generators to fuel terminals, so that gas shortages that happened during Superstorm Sandy do not repeat.

Amanda Lindner contributed to this report.