Storm leaves more than 1,100 customers without power in Southold Town

A storm that brought strong wind gusts across the area Monday has left more than 1,100 customers in Southold Town without power, according to PSEG Long Island.

An outage map at 5:30 p.m. showed the majority of those customers affected are in Southold in the area of Main Bayview Road. Another 148 customers were without power in East Marion.

Southold Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando said the outage in the Southold area was not caused by any trees down. He said it seemed the town had mostly “lucked out.”

“There are no leaves on the trees, which makes it much easier,” he said. “When the leaves are on they act like a giant sail and you get a lot more damage. We had some trees down, but very little. The rain was slow and steady, which the drains can handle. I think, so far, we lucked out.”

Staff reductions during the coronavirus pandemic have left the highway department with a much smaller crew than normal. He said normally there are about 35 people whereas now it’s just a handful.

The National Weather Service reported a wind gust in Orient of 68 mph at 4:04 p.m. Another gust in Orient at 2:31 p.m. hit 66 mph. Those were the two strongest gusts recorded in Suffolk County, according to the NWS.

Mr. Orlando said there were 36 mph winds in Peconic.

A high wind warning remains in effect until 8 p.m. Tuesday is expected to be much better with mostly sunshine and high temperature of around 55 degrees.