The Ohel is Without Electricity

By COLlive reporter

The worst of hit-and-run Hurricane Irene comes Monday as millions of commuters face a morning disaster, blackouts stretch into a third day and the cleanup kicks into high gear, NY Daily News reports.

“It will be annoying, and people will scream,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg predicted.

Subways began service Monday morning with fewer trains and longer waits.

At the same time, utility companies scrambled to deal with widespread power failures – about 131,500 customers as of Sunday night and even Monday.

One of them is Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch, the visitors center at the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Cambria Heights, Queens, where Jewish people flock daily for prayers.

“We’ve been without electricity since late Motzoei Shabbos,” the center’s director, Rabbi Abba Refson confirmed to COLlive.com Monday afternoon.

His staff used their generators to keep the visitors house and tent running with light throughout the tropical storm.

In the Rebbe’s Ohel itself, in Old Montefiore cemetery, yahrzeit candles lit the small hallway while the inside lamps worked on a generator.

Rabbi Refson said the amount of visitors has not been affected as a result. Requests for prayers kept coming in by phone, fax and email and were read at the Ohel.

Con Ed told New York media that power might not come back until midnight tomorrow as high winds hampered repair efforts.

But Rabbi Refson said he was told the Ohel area will regain power in the next few hours.