Con Edison Plans to Finish Vast Majority of Isaias Restoration by Sunday Night
Fast-Track Work by Company’s Crews Has Restored Service to 119,000 Customers
Con Edison plans to finish restoring power by Sunday night to the vast majority of the more than 300,000 customers who lost service in yesterday’s fast-moving, hard-hitting storm.
The crews have already restored power to more than 119,000 customers affected by the storm, which caused enormous damage in the short time it was in the area.
Con Edison cautions everyone to stay away from downed wires. Do not assume they are de-energized. They may be live.
“Our employees have done an incredible job of responding when our customers needed them the most,” said Robert Schimmenti, the company’s senior vice president, Electric Operations. “They’ve had quite a summer, first with the back-to-back heat waves and now with this historic storm.”
The restoration will continue around the clock until the remaining approximately 187,000 customers have their service back.
Trees blocked nearly 500 roads. Con Edison continues to remove wires from many of those and working with municipal public works crews to remove the trees.
Isaias’s destruction surpassed Hurricane Irene’s, which caused 204,000 customer outages in August 2011. The record for storm-related outages is 1.1 million caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.
Crews have restored power to more than 30,000 Westchester County customers and are working on the remaining 96,000 customers; In Queens, more than 21,000 customers have gotten service back with about 43,000 still out; In Brooklyn, crews have restored about 26,000 customers with about 5,600 remaining out; In Staten Island, the company has restored more than 35,000 customers with about 18,000 still out.
In the Bronx, crews have restored 5,300 customers and 24,500 are out of service.
In Westchester, the communities with the largest numbers of outages include: Yonkers, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon, New Castle, Rye, and Greenburgh.
In Queens, the storm had a big on impact on communities that included Cambria Heights, Howard Beach, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Astoria Whitestone, Middle Village, Flushing and other areas in the southeast portion of the borough. The Flatbush and Sheepshead Bay areas were among those in Brooklyn that took the brunt of the storm.
Outages are spread throughout areas of the Bronx where the electric distribution system is overhead with areas in the northeast and southeast sections of the borough, along with Riverdale, getting hit hard.
On Staten Island, Great Kills, Eltingville, Woodrow, Todt Hill and Tompkinsville had significant outages.
Including tree trimmers and other workers, the company has 1,000 of its own employees and outside personnel working on the restoration. Another 250 mutual aid and contract workers will be on the job on Thursday. Crews give priority to making repairs that will provide power to the most customers quickly, then restore smaller groups and individual customers. Crews will continue working on some of those smaller groups into the early part of next week.
Crews give priority to making repairs that will provide power to the most customers quickly, then restore smaller groups and individual customers. Crews will continue working on some of those smaller groups into the early part of next week.
Con Edison sent text messages to customers in all its service areas except Manhattan, where the electric system is totally underground. The messages remind customers to be prepared and to report an outage by simply replying OUT to the text.
Customers can sign up for text alerts at conEd.com/text. Customers can report outages and check restoration status at conEd.com/reportoutage,or with Con Edison’s mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633).
Customers who report outages will receive updates from Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available. Information on outages and restoration times is also available at the Con Edison outage map.
Con Edison personnel practice social distancing to keep everyone safe from the coronavirus. Con Edison is following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Con Edison offers the following storm tips:
- Do not go near downed wires. Treat all downed wires as if they are live. Never attempt to move them or touch them with your hands of any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by snow, tree limbs, leaves or water.
- Report all downed wires to Con Edison and your local police department immediately. If a power line falls on your car while you’re in it, stay inside the vehicle and wait for emergency personnel.
- If your power goes out, disconnect or turn off appliances that would otherwise turn on automatically when service is restored. If several appliances start up at once, the electric circuits may overload.
- Check to make sure your flashlights and any battery-operated radios or televisions are in working order. Make sure you have a supply of extra batteries. Weather updates and news on restorations of electrical service can be heard on most local radio and television stations.
- For more storm tips and preparation, go to www.conEd.com
Customers can follow Con Edison on Twitter or like us on Facebook for general outage updates, safety tips and storm preparation information. In addition, the company is in close contact with the New York City Emergency Management and the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services to coordinate storm response if needed.