We live in a society that runs on electricity. Almost everything that we do uses it in some way, shape, or form. This dependency puts the provider of this power under a great deal of pressure, and when the provider can no longer deliver this crucial service, society breaks into disorder. Even in the face of complete catastrophe, people feel that they deserve their power.

The local power provider is the Long Island Power Authority, or LIPA. Due to the mass damage and extended outages caused by Hurricane Sandy, many of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers are beginning to question LIPA’s competency.

After a storm as devastating as Sandy, it is understandable that power would be lost temporarily; however, many Long Islanders feel that the situation was not handled correctly. According to Long Beach reporter Jamie Sumersille, LIPA earned a 20 percent approval rating among New Yorkers in the aftermath of the storm. With 80 percent of the state’s residents saying that LIPA didn’t do a very good job, something has to be done. Many homes on Long Island experienced outages that lasted for weeks; some still haven’t received power, and other houses were condemned.

Fortunately, the emergency was handled well by most of Long Island; the collective efforts of shelters and kind citizens welcoming others into their homes made the recovery successful. Nevertheless, numerous people still feel that LIPA has to claim responsibility for the extended power outages in many areas.

Many community members feel that LIPA has not stepped up and tried to fix the problems with the organization. “I was without power for fourteen days; LIPA has to do something to make sure that nothing like this happens again,” Massapequa sophomore Matt Lam said. One major problem the organization faced was the lack of a strong executive board. The Huffington Post stated that LIPA was “heavily criticized for its response to Superstorm Sandy.” Following these criticisms, LIPA’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Hervey, Vice President of Customer Service Bruce Germano, and Board of Trustees member Cristofer Damianos all resigned from their positions.

So, what is the fate of LIPA? While currently there are no plans for a complete overhaul of its administration, LIPA, along with the rest of Long Island, now knows the true power of nature, and will be more cautious in the event of any future storms. If anything positive can be drawn from this situation, it is that LIPA will hopefully look at what has happened and try to improve its systems for future emergencies. All of this, of course, can only begin once LIPA has finished returning everything to normal after what has proven to be one of the most devastating storms in Long Island’s history.