fact? i still have not been able to get an answer to that question. the long island power authority lipa charges the highest public utility electricity rates in the country and right now about a half million of their customers are without power. new york city did better. con ed reporting a few problems and there's a big problem, though, with america's infrastructure in general. irene was not a catastrophic storm. but one of the largest utility companies in the country, lipa, could not handle it. if the u.s.a. is ever hit by a major natural disaster or a nuclear incident, this country will be in big trouble. t the truth is that our electrical services are fragile and antiquated and easily knocked out so my advice to you is this. buy a generator if you can afford to and stock up on nonperishable stuff you will need if you don't have electricity. in this high-tech aim, we're all way too dependent on machines and as we all know, machines can go down very fast. in my community, folks pulled