Con Edison to Customers: We're More Than Halfway There

In just 36 hours, Con Edison crews reached the halfway mark in restorations following Isaias’ punishing winds and rain that brought down thousands of trees, 78 poles and other equipment, causing over 580 road closures and approximately 300,000 customer outages.

At 7 a.m. today, a fresh shift of Con Edison employees – numbering more than 1,000, including 460 utility contractors and mutual aid workers - will continue the forward momentum of assessing damage, providing site safety, restoring power, and clearing trees and downed wires.

Power has been restored to more than 85 percent of affected customers in Brooklyn and 74 percent of affected customers in Staten Island. Also restored are 10,495 customers in the Bronx and 45,487 in hardest hit Westchester County. Crews are continuing to work with municipalities to remove downed wires from fallen trees to facilitate the opening of blocked roads.

“This storm’s impact to the tri-state area was historic,” said Matthew Ketschke, Con Edison senior vice president of Customer Energy Solutions. “We are making significant progress as we work around the clock to restore power. New Yorkers are depending on us.”

Con Edison plans to finish restoring power to the vast majority of the approximately 300,000 customers who lost service during the storm by Sunday night. Crews will continue to work until all customers are restored, most likely early next week. Crews give priority to making repairs that will provide power to the most customers quickly, then restore smaller groups and individual customers.

Customers are urged to report their outage to 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).

Con Edison cautions everyone to stay away from downed wires. Do not assume they are de-energized. They may be live.

Crews have restored power to more than 45,000 Westchester County customers and are working on the remaining 83,000 customers. In Queens, more than 34,000 customers have gotten service back with about 36,000 still out.

In Brooklyn, crews have restored about 27,000 customers with about 4,400 remaining out and in Staten Island, the company has restored more than 44,000 customers with about 13,000 still out. In the Bronx, crews have restored more than 10,000 customers and about 19,800 are out of service.

Also planned for today, Con Edison employees will distribute 40,000 pounds of ice to customers at six locations: two in Westchester; and one each in the Bronx, Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn. The exact locations for the distribution points will be announced later today.

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.

Con Edison sent text messages to 1.3 million 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 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.