Updated: Oyster Bay: Open for Business

Friday, 11 a.m.

A comment from an Oyster Bay Patch user (see below): We have power on Locust Lane, off Mill River and Capital Hts. The downtown restaurants were open last night - Harborside deli, La Nonna's and Lourdes. Gulden's Bakery and Cafe was open during the day. Supposrt your local shop owners who are making every effort to be open for our needs!!! Bernsteins was open on Tuesday selling anything they had to help out - it's great to live in a small town!

Thursday, 10 p.m.

Power has returned to Oyster Bay east of the library and up into the neighborhoods by St. Dominic's, although there are pockets without power.

The shops in the strip malls in Pine Hollow have power as of Thursday night as well as the apartments across the street.

---

Power is slowly returning to Oyster Bay as LIPA crews and contractors work around the clock in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

671,360 LIPA customers are without power across Long Island as of Thursday. Lights are on, however, throughout downtown Oyster Bay from Bayside Avenue to the Oyster Bay Public Library. East of the library remains dark, though a LIPA worker on the ground said that crews are steadily working to restore power on Cove Road.

Crews have been seen working at the intersection of Berry Hill Road and South Street and at multiple locations along Pine Hollow Road and 106. Traffic lights are back on along Main Street and South Street downtown, though the traffic light at Hess is still out as is the traffic light at the intersection of 25A and 106. Thankfully, traffic crews have now put traffic cones up to block left hand turns at that location.

Many businesses in Oyster Bay have reopened and life seems to be slowly returning to normal. Restaurants, the post office, some hardware stores, and some banks have reopened in Oyster Bay Village up South Street/Pine Hollow Road to Morgan Gentry's, after which the power is still out. The OBEN Public Library, CVS, Rite Aid, and all other stores in the two strip malls in Pine Hollow are closed with the exception of Mid-China and Stop & Shop. East Norwich shopping centers are still dark, though La Pizzetta is open.

LIPA crews on the ground Wednesday afternoon would not give an estimate of how long it would take to restore power to the rest of Oyster Bay. They have been working to restore circuits that supply power to the largest number of people and to restore transmission lines and substations that were damaged during the storm.

An additional 1,969 utility personnel are on their way to Long Island to assist in the restoration effort, according to LIPA's website, and 1,200 High Voltage and Tree Trim crews working on the system.

See updates on power outages and restorations from residents commenting in real time on our Facebook page. Give us an update on your power situation and what's open in Oyster Bay in the comment section below.