'Board Games, Four Blankets': How Smithtown Coped With Sandy Power Outages

More than 80 percent of LIPA customers lost power in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and many remained in the dark for several days, with a few waiting well more than a week for power to be restored. 

On the one year anniversary of Sandy, we asked readers on our Facebook page how long they were without power and how they coped. Here's a few of the responses:

Maria Piracci Dispenza: Lost power for 8 days - had a generator. Just not the same. Never complained but it did get old. I knew there were others far worse off than us.

Patti Gries-Whitmarsh: Had a generator - powered my house and my neighbors for 7 days - not going to complain when you see those that lost so much. Let's get them the funds they need to continue to rebuild!

Florence Meier Duckham: 18+ days, bought generator after Irene, was out for 2 weeks then

Barbara Barker: We were lucky and were only without power 6 days, but we had a generator, which made us even luckier - so we shared that luck with anyone who needed a place to stay, a hot meal, a cup of coffee, laundry washed, or to store their food in our fridge/freezer. Having a teenager, we had 10 teens in and out over a 2 week period - until most of the neighborhood was restored. We didn't have hot water, but neighbors were kind enough to let us use their shower (even 6 of us taking turns at one time). We kept running to the stores to stock up on food, stood on lines for gas, but compared to what others were going through, we had it easy.

Shelley Kossover: Ten days. Sponge bathing and shampoo with ice water, wearing four layers of clothing, heating instant coffee and soup on barbecue, sleeping under four blankets - and walking to the mall to charge cell phone. When the trees were finally cleared to make roads passable, we visited friends Dottie and Donnie, whose bottom floor was devastated. They were bailing buckets of water and throwing out soaked furniture.

Laura Hanjoglu-Goerke: 9 days had can/box of food, bbq, used stuff in freezer and then can and boxed stuff. had flash lights, played board games. took walks in the neighborhood to survey the damage. Went to the library toward the end so that we could use the computers. The library had power before we did. better than those who got flooded.

We'd love to hear your Sandy story. Here’s how you can share.

Visit the My Sandy Story blog here and click on the open text box under the heading to create a post.

Or, from the homepage, follow these steps:

• Sign in to your Patch. (Click “Join” if you don’t have an account yet.)
• Click the "Blogs" tab, near the top of the homepage and then locate the My Sandy Story blog in the left-hand column. Click on it.
• Click in the box that says, “Write a new post” and then click on “Article” at the top.
• Give your post a headline, enter the body of the story and upload your photos.
• Click “Post now.”