VIDEO: Lights Still Out in Clearwater Beach Five Days After Irene

Wendy Herzberg prepared for a power outage in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene on Sunday, but nearly five days into the outage, she had enough of getting no definitive answers from the Long Island Power Authority as to when she and her neighbors on Norfolk Drive, in the Clearwater Beach section fo Springs, would have the lights turned back on.

Herzberg, who works from home, was one of 80,000 customers on Long Island and less than 200 in Springs still experiencing an interruption in service as of Thursday night. However, it wasn't just the inconveniences that had her frustrated, it was the question: What if the storm had been worse?