Update 11:30 a.m. Monday: LIPA reporting more than 10,000 customers in West Islip without power. Continued heavy flooding was seen on several streets along the Great South Bay with numerous trees down.
Update 7:30 p.m.: Outages have climbed, leaving more than 5,000 West Islip LIPA customers in the dark.
Update 5:15 p.m.: More than 1,800 West Islip homes are without power, as outages spike across the area with winds increasing.
The largest outage is located just north of Union Boulevard and west of Higbie Lane.
Earlier this evening, LIPA announced they were halting repairs until the storm dies down.
Original Story: Close to 250 West Islip homes have lost power as the winds of Hurricane Sandy began drastically increasing over Long Island.
The Long Island Power Authority reports 248 homes without power on their Outage Map as of 3:30 p.m. The outages were a part of 173,000 estimated homes without electricity throughout Long Island.
Related: Street Flooding Begins As Sandy Approaches
The outages come as Hurricane Sandy, a Category 1 "hybrid" hurricane, began to make its approach on the New York Metro area on Tuesday afternoon. The storm, as of the last National Weather Service update, was packing sustained core winds of 90 mph and had tropical force winds extending up to 500 miles from that core center.
LIPA was not able to give any estimate on a time of restoration.
The West Islip School District closed schools for Tuesday in anticipation of the widespread power outages.
Here's some helpful tips if you're stuck in the dark:
- LIPA's Outage Hotline number is 1-800-490-0075 or 631-755-6900,
- Check out LIPA's website via smartphone here to see the latest updates on power restoration and current outages.
Patch wil continue to provide updates on power outages as the storm progresses.
