After reading reports that 99 percent of Long Island houses have had power restored from Irene-related outages, it's easy to just turn on your hairdryer, dishwasher, and that giant neon sign you stole from Applebee's and just take it all for granted. Yet one percent is still one percent, and they are pissed. One Hicksville couple who lives around 500 feet from the Long Island Power Authority's headquarters made an "SOS" banner to draw attention to the fact that they've been without power for over a week. "I feel like going across the street with an extension cord and saying 'can you please give me electricity,' because they never lost their lights," Beth Arrieta tells CBS.
"The most difficult part of the ordeal" for Arrieta and her husband was caring for Arrieta's elderly mother, a concern echoed by Rajiv Pandey, who has been charged with a felony after calling News 12 and telling them he was going to bomb LIPA because they hadn't restored power to him and his grandmother. "My poor grandmother, who lives right across from my house, was dying of heat, and all of her food had to be thrown out," Pandey tells the Daily News. "I guess I have ruined my life saving my grandmother. I became a felon for doing the community a service."
Pandey is facing four years in prison if he's convicted for making the threat, which forced police to search 30 different LIPA locations for a bomb. "I needed power back but now I'm scared as hell. I don't know if it was the right thing or the wrong thing, but I got my power back." As the old adage goes, "The squeaky bomb threat gets his meter running."
