Power outages give Riverhead a post-Sandy scare

More than 1,100 LIPA customers in Riverhead were briefly without power around 1 p.m. Sunday, causing concern in a hamlet just getting over Superstorm Sandy.

Police and fire officials told the News-Review the outages were related to a malfunctioning underground LIPA transformer.

LIPA repairmen, police and firefighters also rushed Minuteman Press on Main Street in Riverhead. Riverhead Fire Chief Tony White said there was not a fire at Minuteman, but rather a cloud of smoke believed to be related to the outages. Police had to pop the lock at the printing shop, which is closed today.

An employee at nearby Diggers said the power never went out at the restaurant but they lost cable around the time they first started smelling smoke.

Nearly all the outages, including traffic lights that were reportedly out north of Roanoke Avenue, had been restored about an hour later, according to LIPA estimates.