Feeling Em-Powered in Deer Park, N. Babylon

It's electric! Boogie, woogie, woogie.

Power is now restored to Deer Park and North Babylon residents, and they're not the only ones.

More than 99 percent of Suffolk County has electricity, as of Sunday, Nov. 11, County Executive Steve Bellone announced.

There are a few hand fulls of scattered homes still without power, including about 10 in Deer Park and North Babylon, but those homes will also be reconnected within the next few days as crews survey neighborhoods and receive calls reporting individual outages, Bellone said.

On Friday, Bellone cut off communications with the headquarters of the Long Island Power Authority and began communicating directly with substation managers, who were directing the crews actually working to restore the power.

Bellone said that LIPA headquarters ordered substation managers not to provide information. To that end, County Executive Bellone directed Suffolk County Police Officers to two substations to collect the information.

"Despite the massive failure of leadership at LIPA Headquarters, we have restored power in Suffolk County thanks to the dedicated men and women on the ground who have been working 16 to 18 hour days to get the job done," Bellone stated in a press release. "By working with the front line workers, we have expedited turning the lights on by making sure the resources needed to restore the power remain here in Suffolk County. While I am deeply disappointed in LIPA's leadership, I have been overwhelmed as I have witnessed firsthand the dedication and commitment of the workers in the streets and in the substations as I have met and talked with them over the last several days and I want to thank them for their efforts on behalf of all County residents."

Bellone, in coordination with Babylon Supervisor Rich Schaffer and Islip Supervisor Tom Croci, broke with LIPA as a result of what the government officials called a "failed inspection process" that they would have left thousands of customers along the south shore without power for an indefinite period of time.