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COUNTY EXECUTIVE LATIMER ADDRESSING SOLIDARITY MEETING AT COUNTY CENTER THIS MORNING.

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John Bailey. March  9, 2018 reported from Facebook Stream:

As of 11:30 this morning, 13,000 Con Edison Customers are without power in Westchester County, NYSEG reports 6,941, Joan Macdonald, Director of Operations for the County said moments ago 11:15 A.M.

As of yesterday morning there were 47,000 out of power between the two companies.

Con Ed and NYSEG over 24 hours has restored a little over 1,000 Customers (with meters),  an hour. This after outages had tripled to 47,000 Wednesday morning.

The County Executive had easily 100 persons on the dais behind him at the Little Theater in the county center, criticized Con Ed for communication chaos, speaking in “corporate speak,” to county and local officials and misinforming customers and failure to work directly with communities to bring back power.

A young woman from Mount Vernon, Rikka Mills (above) a community particularly hard hit, said she had three disabled children. Her voice breaking, she described repeatedly calling Con Ed, reporting her plight. She said Con Ed did not get in touch with her. I was brought to tears when she said plaintively, “This is not O.K. Not at all.”

Ms. Mills in tears related her Con Ed horror:

 “We have been without power since Friday, I have two disabled children, and they should never been in this situation. It is so hard to bring them home to a cold house because change is difficult for them. Each time we spoke with ConED they would say ‘it will come back on soon.’ When I was driving around in the snowstorm to find a hotel I got a text from ConED saying the power was back on – and when we went back home it was still out.”

Before starting his press conference he called for the Con Ed Board to replace their senior management. He said Con Edison had failed in its responsibility, lost the confidence of its customers.

Linda Puglisi Town Supervisor of Cortlandt, said time after time event after event Con Ed has failed:

“In 27 years as Town Supervisor, I have gone through storms, hurricanes, nor’easters, flooding and it is the same ending of the story each time – and let me tell you it is not a happy ending, it is a nightmare.”

Latimer in response to a news conference question said the county had no power to effect the change, that was up to the Con Ed Board and shareholders to do that.

Latimer criticized Con Ed and NYSEG for failing to set up command centers in towns to interact with town police and leaders. Inadequate briefings to the county and callusnous towards its customers. He said Con Ed management had lost the confidence of the people.

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