UPDATED: Over 3,500 Homes Without Power Friday Afternoon

Update, 3 p.m. Friday: LIPA crews have nearly chopped the number of homes without power on the North Fork and Shelter Island in half in about 24 hours, as just over 3,700 homes are waiting for their lights to turn on.

The outages are as follows:

• Shelter Island Heights: 616
• Shelter Island: 41
• Orient: 63
• Greenport West: Less than 5
• Southold: 1,019
• Cutchogue: 459
• Peconic: 70
• Mattituck: 949
• Laurel: 77
• Jamesport: 81
• Northville: 320
• Aquebogue: 50

LIPA's outage map does not include numbers from East Marion.

Update, 10 a.m. Thursday: While Long Island Power Authority crews work to restore power across Long Island – outages were down systemwide from a peak of about 875,000 to 680,320 as of Thursday morning – individuals without power due to the storm stands at 7,315 on Thursday morning.

Outages are noted as follows:

• Shelter Island Heights: 594
• Shelter Island: 463
• Orient: 626
• East Marion: 1,649
• Southold: 1,146
• Cutchogue: 1,635
• Peconic: 86
• Mattituck: 944
• Laurel: 82
• Jamesport: 8
• Northville: 42
• Aquebogue: 666

Update: 9:00 a.m. Tuesday: Some 9,682 LIPA customers are without power Tuesday morning across the North Fork and Shelter Island. The Village of Greenport has power. 

Update, 7:45 p.m.: Over 18,000 are reported without power across the North Fork and Shelter Island – not including the Village of Greenport. 

Original story: Close to 10,000 are without power from Shelter Island to Aquebogue as Hurricane Sandy sweeps up the East Coast and wind gusts continue to knock down branches and limbs around the North Fork.

Big outages are reported in Aquebogue, Cutchogue, Southold and East Marion, and close to 200,000 are reported to be without power across Long Island.

According to LIPA's outage map, Aquebogue has just over 1,300 customers without power, nearly 2,000 in Cutchogue, almost another 2,000 in Southold, and just over 2,200 in East Marion. No crews are assigned at the moment to either location, with no estimated time of restoration.

Other outages include 960 in Orient, close to 400 in various locations in Mattituck.

LIPA released the following statement on Mondy afternoon: "LIPA and National Grid will continue to restore power to the maximum extent possible, keeping in mind that the safety of the public and our workforce is the highest priority. Due to the high sustained wind speeds and localized flooding, overhead line work will be delayed for long periods of time until conditions once again become safe for crews, which based on the current weather forecast will be Tuesday morning. Ground work restoration will continue as conditions allow."

Power outage numbers do not include Greenport Village, which operates its own electric system. Mayor David Nyce was not immediately available for comment.

A weather alert from the National Weather Service states that Hurricane Sandy's strongest winds – including gusts of up to 85 miles per hour – are expected in the area Monday afternoon and evening.

According to the NWS, "Winds will be capable of downing trees and snapping off large tree branches. Power outages could be widespread and last at least several days."