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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey. March 3, 2018. 10:40 AM E.S.T. :

As of 10:30 A.M. Con Edison reports 72,596 Con Edison customers (a customer is one electric meter, as defined by Con Ed), 2.2% of the  3,323,537 customers in the five boroughs of New York City and Westchester County are without power.

In White Plains, as of this hour, there are 83 Outages reported, affecting 1,408 customers.

Westchester Con Edison spokesman Sydney Alvarez told WPCNR, is by far the hardest hit due to a high total of downed trees, that have affected the county above ground power lines.

The wind conditions are expected to be factors in the progress of repairs. Currently as of 11 A.M., Westchester County Airport reports wind speed is 25 knots with gusts to 40 miles an hour.

In White Plains, for example, a large elm tree has fallen across Bryant Avenue in the vicinity of Bryant Gardens apartments.

The trees, Alvarez said which have to be cleared by local municipalities before Con Edison trucks go in. The weather has cleared but stiff winds still persist.

Alvarez said there is a threshold of wind velocity at which the Con Edison buckets are at risk to be blown over or make repairs by technicians in the buckets aloft unsafe or  and repairs difficult to execute safely. Alvarez said the repair crew foreman makes the decision as to whether the winds are too high for the bucket apparatus to be deployed.

The spokesman told WPCNR Con Ed had been preparing for the springtime hurricane (winds roared through through Westchester County out of the northeast at over40 miles per hour most of yesterday afternoon and through the evening with wind gusts as high as 60 and 70 miles an hour, Alvarez said.

Alvarez said Con Edison is working closely with municipalities for tree clearance. He said repairs would proceed with safety the first priority after community roads had been cleared. Con Ed will proceed attempting to restore the outages affecting the highest number of customers first.

At this point, he said because of the high wind conditions, Con Edison could not promise when restorations to the affected Westchester areas would be complete.

Alvarez said residents who are without power should be sure and turn off all appliances to avoid a power surge damage when power is restored.