<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of the New York Post at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "><a href="http://tinyurl.com/bohanv9">http://tinyurl.com/bohanv9</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; "> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div><p style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "></p><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">LIPA customers who spent weeks without power due to Sandy get zapped with normal electric bills</span></font></h1></div><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LIPA customers who spent weeks without power got zapped with their normal electric bills — as if the outages never happened.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The clueless utility charged Sandy-soaked Long Island residents an estimated rate that covered the entire billing cycle, and the statements made no mention of potential refunds to account for the prolonged blackouts.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jonathan Saporta was slapped with a double whammy by the Long Island Power Authority — a $649 bill for the Long Beach home he left in October and a $281 bill for his new Great Neck pad.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He also is expecting a $1,700 bill for his storm-ravaged restaurant, Jake’s Wayback Burger, which is in hard-hit Long Beach and remains without power.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I can’t get LIPA to acknowledge my existence on earth to talk to me about anything,” he ranted. “But I guess they had power, so they could print my bills. Nice, right?”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Saporta, 33, moved to the Great Neck home on Oct. 1 and got the bill in the mail on Wednesday for a cycle covering 43 days — including the two weeks he spent in the dark following the Oct. 29 storm.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even though he switched his account to the new address on Sept. 26, he still received an e-mail bill for the Long Beach house on Nov. 10 — and somehow it was $390 more than the previous month.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I am not paying any of my bills, that much I promise,” said Saporta. “They can put me into collections, and I’ll fight them tooth-and-nail.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s simply criminal.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Michael Hilferty, 29, an attorney from Long Beach, was e-mailed his bill — which was about a dollar more than the previous month — as he chowed down on some turkey.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“To get this message on Thanksgiving was crass and classless. It’s just heartless,” he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His oceanfront building was flooded with 7 feet of water and inundated with 4 feet of sand, covering the LIPA meters.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hilferty left the apartment, which remains dark and boarded up, and has been staying in Connecticut.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yet he was hit for 29 days of electric usage, including delivery and system charges.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">David Wasserman, 40, of Merrick, tried to report online the difference between his actual and estimated electric usage.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I got some message that said, ‘Service records show your usage would be higher. Please call an operator for further assistance,’ ” he said. “No one ever picked up.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LIPA did not return repeated calls seeking comment.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Con Ed, on the other hand, wants to refund its Manhattan customers who lost power $3 and customers from other boroughs who lost power $6, the utility proposed this week in a filing with the Public Service Commission. Those figures represent a portion of customers’ fixed monthly bills, which exclude power usage.</span></p></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-------------------------------------</span><br><br><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">"Moscow Cares"</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "> </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div> </div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><h1 style="text-align: -webkit-auto; list-style: none; border: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LIPA customers who spent weeks without power due to Sandy get zapped with normal electric bills</span></font></h1></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>