They’re not only powerless — they’re clueless, too.
A Long Island Power Authority official told a crowd of 300 Rockaway residents that they would need to hire a licensed city electrician to inspect their homes before LIPA could restore power, and suggested the homeowners print out inspection forms — from the Internet.
“But we don’t have power!” the crowd shouted back at LIPA’s vice president of operations, Nicholas Lizanich.
A red-faced Lizanich then told the Queens residents they could pick up forms at LIPA command centers on the peninsula.
As Lizanich went on to explain the continued outages to the frustrated residents at the outdoor public meeting at Beach 94th Street, his microphone cut in and out — to the delight of the crowd.
“On a scale of zero to 100, I give [LIPA] a zero,” grumbled homeowner Jim Silvestri, who asked whether he could use a Nassau County-certified electrician and was told no.
“There’s not enough licensed electricians in the City of New York to take care of this,” he added.
The confrontation between LIPA and residents came as New York City’s death toll from Hurricane Sandy climbed and officials vowed to investigate the city’s response to the apocalyptic storm.
Former Police Academy custodian and great-grandfather Albert McSwain, 77, was added to the death count after the Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that his tragic fall on wet steps at his city-owned apartment building in the hard-hit Rockaways was connected to the storm.
McSwain was left clinging to life after slipping at the top of a stairwell on Oct. 31, two days after the storm, and falling in his dark and flooded Rockaway Beach Boulevard building.
The retiree died Saturday at Jamaica Hospital.
“He was walking up the stairs and slipped,” said his distraught daughter, Allison Lockett. “We had no power, and the stairs were very wet.”
Officials said the city’s official death toll is now 43.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the council would hold hearings on how the crisis has been handled but did not give a date.
Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens), who has called for hearings, said, “In order to deal with situations like Sandy, there is a need to assess what went right, what went wrong, and who should be held accountable.”
Mayor Bloomberg tried to reassure New Yorkers that response teams were hard at work in hard-hit areas.
“Since Hurricane Sandy hit New York, the city has been working around-the-clock to meet the needs of people living in the areas that were hit hardest, like the Rockaways, Staten Island, Red Hook and Coney Island. And every day, we’re expanding our efforts,” Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address yesterday.
“Medical teams are also going door to door in high-rise buildings without power to ensure residents who remained in their homes are safe.”
But that was little comfort to people like 93-year-old Linda Doyle, a ninth-floor resident who has not been outside her Rockaways high-rise since the storm.
“I can’t take this,” Doyle said. “I’d love to go out, take some air in and walk a little.”
Doyle added that her one wish for her 94th birthday tomorrow is to feel the sunshine on her face and visit with her 91-year-old sister, who lives nearby but whom she hasn’t been able to see since before the storm.
Despite the continuing horror stories — including Canarsie condos destroyed by water from Jamaica Bay — officials are reporting progress and countless examples of pitching in:
* Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano met with state and local officials in Staten Island yesterday and said it looked like “a different place” from what she saw 10 days earlier.
* Gov. Cuomo said the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel will reopen today for rush-hour bus service.
* City employees will be able to set aside part of their paychecks directly to relief efforts.
Additional reporting by Leonard Greene, Antonio Antenucci and Josh Saul