WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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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.

WPCNR Go to www.westchestergov.com scroll down to the Facebook icon click it, on left side go to “videos” click it and check periodically. or Copy and paste this link in your browser, and hit ‘GO” TO SEE THE COMPLETE RALLY AND NEWS CONFERENCE

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County Executive George Latimer (left) with State Senator Terrence Murphy at the Briefing in Yorktown this morning.
WPCNR THE POWER STORY. March 8, 2018:

County Executive George Latimer conducted an hour Media briefing this morning at Yorktown Police Headquarters, reporting there are 29,653 Westchester Con Edison Customers without power and 18,059 NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC AND GAS customers out of power, 47, 712 in total.

You can see the complete media briefing at this link below. Thanks to the Westchester County Department of Communications for this timely expedited link up CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW or Copy and put it in your browser and press “Go”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf0_4KmkoRk&feature=youtu.be

No information was given as to what Con Ed and NYSEG are proceeding ahead to address the power crisis. Mr. Latimer praised the Con Ed workers doing the dangerous work but repeated his criticism of yesterday saying Top Con Ed management needed to be replaced for the way Westchester’s greatest power crisis has been handled. He said the utilities have to be accountable now, not when hearings on the recovery efficiency and decisions are held months from now.

The Yorktown Police Chief  Noble cautioned motorists not to touch guardrails if they are stuck, because you could be electrocuted if downed live wires are draped across the guardrail and you do not know it.

The Disaster Coordinator from New York State, Cathy Calhoun said there were 155,000 Customers without power across New York State after the yesterday’s storm subsided. As of noon yesterday, there were 29,000. She said National Guard units have helped clear trees and debris, perform wellness checks and helped out wherever police and local officials suggested. She reiterated that Governor Cuomo has promised a full investigation of the Con Ed, NYSEG performance. Previously, Governor Cuom called the untility performance “absurd.”

The Town Supervisor of Yorktown, Ilan Gilbert, above praised his police department and EMS workers for their tireless efforts pleaded with Consolidated Edison to “tell us the truth,”  about areas and town areas out of power and to work with police departments. WPCNR Asked if as of this morning, whether Con Edison and NYSEG was now doing this, Golbert told WPCNR they were not.

He sharply criticised Con Ed and NYSEG for not cooperating with the police and using police expertise and knowledge of what areas out of power in Yorktown needed to be service first, giving the impression that Con Ed was not strategically working with areas without power in Yorktown.

Mr. Latimer went into detail on what he thought was wrong with the way Con Ed makes management decisions saying they are the ones who have to shut off power before crews can get to work clearing the trees tangled in downed power wires, and that the utilities had to work with officials of the areas they are attempting to restore in a more open manner and make decisions with the communities and get on the same page.

The Coordinator for New York State said the state national guard forces of some 100 personnel, soon to be four hundred, she said had aided in clearing trees and debris  and wellness checks around the County.

Here is the video of that news conference on this link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf0_4KmkoRk&feature=youtu.be

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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. Overnight Observation by County Executive George Latimer on Facebook. March 8, 2018 8:30 A.M.

County Executive George Latimer was on the move last night in the northern part of Westchester County. This morning he filed this observation on the county Facebook page:
“Con Ed – 33,108 (Westchester Customers Out of Power)
NYSEG – 15,227

Drove around 5 towns tonight – saw some new outages, streets closed, trees down. Given the circumstances, not surprised that no work was underway.

The reports are very bad up north where they were hurt badly last Friday … but no one was unscathed. The nightmare goes on for another day more.”

The Westchester County Department of Communications announced that County Executive Latimer would hold a Morning Briefing at the Yorktown Police Department at 10:30 A.M. this morning.

The Con Edison Media Relations Office contacted by WPCNR, when asked for the number of Westchester Customers out, asked WPCNR to send an e-mail with the question.

As of 8:30 A.M. the Con Ed Storm Center listing of Customers without power does not come up.

The listing was reported by Con Ed to be malfunctioning yesterday, after being 9,000 behind the restoration of power count yesterday morning.

Mr. Latimer’s report of 33,108 within the 8 AM to 9 AM Hour, means that the number of Westchester Customers as gone up 23,197 over the course of the snowstorm, virtually tripling. The NYSEG number Mr. Latimer has put out this morning, has gone from 1,500 yesterday morning to 15,000.

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CON EDISON CREW WORKING BRYANT AVENUE OUTAGE 10 30 AM THIS MORNING

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS From Con Edison Media Relations. March 7, 2018:

Allen Drury of Con Edison in an email to WPCNR, confirmed the feat of restoring 9,000 Westchester Customers from 10 PM last night to early this morning accomplished by Con Edison  Crews teaming with crews from Texas, Canada and Wisconsin working together in worsening conditions through the night.

Drurt furnished a Con Ed press release to WPCNR, released at 9:15 A.M. It is not known whether this release was known by the County Executive George Latimer had his briefing at 9:30 this morning:

“Con Edison crews worked through another winter night restoring electrical service to customers affected by last week’s storm, as a second storm hits the New York area.

The company’s crews, buttressed by hundreds of mutual aid workers from out of state, reduced the number of Westchester County customers out to approximately 9,500 out of about 100,000 affected.

Con Edison advises that it is working to repair technical issues with the automated outage map on its website. The map may display numbers that are outdated.

(WPCNR Editor’s Note Update: Current Automated Outage Map and listing of all Towns still reports as of the 11 A.M. Hour 18,913 Westchester Customers without power. The Press Release says this is an error. It is not apparent how long the Outage Map and subsequent list has been inaccurate. Automated site still as of 12:35 PM says 18,549 Westchester Customers are out. )

The field forces will continue to work to restore customers in Westchester, as well as scattered outages in New York City, as long as the weather allows. The company conducts restoration in a way that is safe for its workers and the public.

The vast majority of customers in Westchester affected by last week’s storm have been restored. The remaining customers, typically those outages affecting one or two customers, are expected to be restored by 11 p.m. on Friday, March 9.

Con Edison will keep many mutual aid workers already on the job in Westchester County to work on any outages caused by a second Nor’easter, Storm Quinn, which has begun dropping a rain-snow mix in the area.

The coming snow could bring tree branches into contact with overhead power lines and cause additional outages. The mix of melting snow and road salt can get into the underground electrical delivery system and cause equipment problems and customer outages.

Heavy, wet snow may hide downed power lines and people should venture outside with extreme caution.

Con Edison reminds members of the public to stay away from downed wires because they may be live.

In Westchester County, the company has more than 1,900 people involved in restoring power, line repair, site safety and planning, including 500 mutual aid workers, who are from as far away as Canada, Texas and Wisconsin.

The company is in touch with elected and school officials in Westchester for input on areas that should be given priority. Crews first focus on repairs that provide power to the most customers and to critical facilities, such as hospitals, municipal pumping stations and schools. Then they move on and make repairs to restore smaller groups and individual customers.

(To see an animation of how a restoration takes place, go to: http://bit.ly/2lnHaWB)

Customers can report downed power lines, outages and check service restoration status at www.conEd.com or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). When reporting an outage, customers should have their Con Edison account number available, if possible, and report whether their neighbors also have lost power.

Customers who report outages will be called by Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available.

Con Edison offers a number of mobile solutions so you can manage your accounts, report and check the status of an outage, learn energy-saving tips, and more. Text REG to OUTAGE (688243) to sign up for text notifications, and follow the prompts. You will need to enter your Con Edison account number to complete the registration process. Once you’ve registered, you will not need your account number to report or check the status of a power problem. Or visit us here to stay on top of outages and power problems by signing up for text notifications.

Con Edison offers the following storm tips:

• Do not go near downed wires because they could be live. Never attempt to move them or touch them with any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by snow, tree limbs, leaves or water.

• Report 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.
• Make sure your flashlights and any battery-operated radios or televisions are working. Have a supply of extra batteries. Weather updates and news on electrical service can be heard on local radio and television stations.
• For more storm tips, go to Con Edison storm safety.

Customers can follow Con Edison on Twitter or like us on Facebook for general outage updates, safety tips and storm preparation information.