Long Island City's been without power for five days?

A blackout has left much of northwest Queens without power for the last five days, and service will not be fully restored until early next week. [New York Times] Somehow, my neighborhood, the Hunter's Point section of Long Island City (the waterfront area south of the Queensboro Bridge, where the blue Citibank Building stands), has not been affected by the blackout, even though the surrounding areas directly to the north (the northern part of Long Island City, and Astoria) and to the east (Sunnyside and Woodside) were.

Long Island City is kind of like the Holy Roman Empire - it's not a city, and it's not in Long Island. Instead, it is a neighborhood in Queens, located across the East River from Midtown Manhattan, and north of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Recently, it has become commonplace for people to use the name "Long Island City" to refer to the Hunter's Point area specifically, but it also includes Ravenswood (the area north of the Queensboro Bridge, bordering on Astoria) and Dutch Kills (the area northwest of Queens Plaza, bordering on Sunnyside Yards, the massive train yard separating LIC from Sunnyside). Historically, Long Island City also included Astoria (as well as Ditmars and Steinway, which are often considered part of Astoria), Sunnyside, and Woodside. As a result, the Long Island City postal district, one of the four Queens postal districts, still includes the entire area.

So when the Times says that the blackout is affecting "most residents in Long Island City, Queens, and surrounding neighborhoods," they are using the traditional definition of Long Island City. With any luck, the blackout will not spread to the area people usually refer to as Long Island City in current parlance; just to be on the safe side, I'm running my air conditioner on Energy Saver mode and using nothing but florescent light bulbs. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who is without power, especially the elderly and folks who rely on electricity for medical equipment.

Queens Probably Will Not Have Power by Sunday [New York Times]
Profiles of Long Island City [Wikipedia; About.com]
Forgotten New York's coverage of LIC [forgotten-ny.com]
Maps of the area [About.com; Google Maps]