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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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. VICTIM REPORT FROM THE HIGHLANDS, WHITE PLAINS, NY. November 4, 2012 4:30 P.M.:

As a highland resident without power since Monday, I want to add to the highlands resident email of Nov 4.

There are crews from out of state idly sitting at affected locations unable to do anything until a Con Ed person arrives to supervise. Crews are not permitted to touch anything without a Con ed member to be sure things are done properly and safely. We’ve seen them on Longview. They had to leave without doing anything because no one came.

That’s because Con Ed doesn’t have adequate personnel to handle this disaster. Why didn’t they temporarily rehire retirees or laid off personnel to assist with Sandy. It’s not like we didn’t have ample notice.

Con Ed didn’t adequately prepare and should be penalized. Everyone should deduct the food spoilage, cost to eat out and in some cases accommodations from their next bill. 

If we all did this perhaps then, we would get their attention!

That’s not to say we don’t applaud all those who are working round the clock as I’m sure they are frustrated too. But this could have been handled more efficiently. How many outages does Con ed need to experience to get it right!!

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. November 3 8:15 P.M.:

Just learned that the Con Ed crew assigned to Greenburgh won’t  be working 24 hours. We have an emergency – over 8,000 homes without power. Very little progress has been made since the hurricane in restoring power to those who have experienced outages.  Con Ed should assign different crews to work AM and PM hours—until restoration of power is complete.

I am communicating my thoughts to every elected official who represents the town, state officials, Con Ed with the following requests/suggestions:

1)      Con Ed should assign crews to areas without power 24 hours a day. No down time until all power is restored.

2)      Con Ed should call in their retirees—ask their qualified retirees to help with power restoration.

3)      Con Ed should authorized properly certified electricians to help out with this emergency.  They should hire private companies (not just out of state contractors) who ALREADY DO STATE WORK to help out—until power is restored.

It is ridiculous that the restoration of power is taking so long.  The NYS Public Service Commission should also investigate the way this crisis has been handled.   I continue to receive calls from people who have major health problems –who won’t leave their homes.  How many people will develop life threatening illnesses as a result of these delays? 
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Governor Cuomo’s Office. November 3, 2012 5 PM:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that over 8 million gallons of gasoline and other petroleum products are on hand and over 28 million gallons are being delivered to operating New York terminals. In addition, millions of gallons have arrived in New York Harbor for delivery to terminals. The Governor provided other updates on progress that is underway to address the fuel shortage in the metro area.

Hudson Valley

Newburgh Global Terminal (gasoline and distillates): The terminal is open to barge deliveries, and a barge was there yesterday, unloading 2.7 million gallons and refueling trucks at same time.

The Governor has also implemented a series of actions designed to increase fuel supplies in the hurricane-affected areas.

Yesterday, the Governor signed an Executive Order to allow distributors and transporters to bring gasoline, diesel, and kerosene into the State of New York without having to meet the usual registration requirements. By law, transporters and distributors must be registered with the State Department of Taxation and Finance. The Governor’s Executive Order temporarily suspended those registration requirements.

In addition, the Governor today signed an Executive Order to temporarily ease restrictions on vapor pressure requirements for gasoline and waive the ultra-low sulfur diesel requirement for home-heating oil. At the Governor’s direction, the state has also obtained a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on vapor recovery requirements so gasoline can be transported from petroleum terminals without power to gas stations in hurricane-affected areas.


While there remains a fuel shortage throughout the region as a result of Hurricane Sandy, actions to address the issue are being executed as planned, leading to more terminals being opened to barge deliveries and more petroleum products being transported throughout the metro area.

“The shortage of gasoline in the New York-metro area has caused major inconveniences for our residents, and the state must take every action possible to address this issue,” Governor Cuomo said. “Although there is much work to be done, I have directed the state to temporarily suspend gasoline distribution related requirements so gasoline and other fuels can be transported throughout the region and New Yorkers can return to life as normal as quickly as possible.”

The following is the current operational status of regional fuel terminal and delivery facilities:

Pipelines

Buckeye Pipeline: Power has been restored to the Linden, New Jersey hub, from which the Buckeye Pipeline can deliver up to 8.5 million gallons per day to New York terminals. The pipeline is operational. The Inwood, New York and Long Island City terminals that receive product from this pipeline are operational.

Colonial Pipeline: Working on generator power; Limited deliveries to Linden facility

Long Island

Inwood – Global Terminal (gasoline and distillates): The facility is open and can accept barge and pipeline deliveries. It opened last night with approximately 1.7 million gallons unleaded; 350,000 gallons premium; 700,000 gallons of ULS diesel on site.

Inwood – CARBO (gasoline and distillates): The facility is open and can accept barge deliveries.

Northville Terminal at Port Jefferson (gasoline and distillates): Northville opened yesterday with 2.4 million gallons of diesel on site. A barge arrived at midnight this morning with 1 million gallons of gasoline. A barge from Hess Port Reading is expected to arrive today with 1 million gallons gasoline. Other scheduled deliveries include:

· November 4: 1.5 million gallons gasoline
· November 5: 1.5 million gallons gasoline
· November 6: 4 million gallons of gasoline and 5.3 million gallons of diesel

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From the Mayor’s Office, Saturday November 3, 2012 12:45 P.M.:

Mayor Thomas Roach issued a Saturday Hurricane Sandy Update to residents of the city via telephone as of 12:30 P.M.

He said “approximately 1,000  (White Plains) customers were restored last night (Friday),” that “multiple out of state crews have been assigned to White Plains outages today (Saturday). according to Con Edison at this time between 8,000 and 9,000  of our 23,000 customers remain without power in the city” at this hour. He said he has been talking with Con Edison consistently demanding more crews for White Plains.

On the gasoline shortage in the city, he said ” the chain of supply is functioning” “please be patient we are being told that there will be normal availability  within 24 to 48 hours, but gas is being delivered. If you are aware of price gouging, because we have had some reports of this, please call County Consumer Protection at 995-2155.”

He praised city work crews saying they have been working non-stop, “sometimes bravely” attempting to clear streets.

He said sheltering remains available at the city Armory on 65 Mitchell Place.

The mayor said:

“I sympathize with those who are without power and I recognize you are cold, in the dark and in a terrible condition. We have been working non-stop to bring additional Con Ed crews into our city, and those efforts are beginning to bear fruit.

As you know, city services have remained intact throughout and our DPW crews have cleared 84 blocked streets, and at least 50 remain blocked because of the limited Con Ed crew provided to us for that purpose.

We are all frustrated with Con Ed. If my voice seems a bit hoarse it’s because I have been speaking to them a great deal at various levels of volume. You should know that your city employees have performed admirably, in many cases bravely, and with great spirit, despite long hours and adverse conditions. With all the problems this storm has brought us, our personnel have exceeded my highest expectations.

And,  although they will say they are just doing their job, we should all be proud of them.

Bring your complaints to me and your thanks to them.

Thank you for your patience, we are on the way back.”

WPCNR has hobserved, driving through Highlands Friday evening, traffic lights are still out with stop signs in place. Motorists should be advised.

Also, WPCNR observed that the Gedney neighborhood has heavy limbs dangling from wires, limbs block through streeets impeding access. This is a very dangerous situation that Con Ed should make a priority and motorists should avoid driving into Gedney from Ridgeway south. Considering the way weight of some of the limbs hanging on the wires, pedestrians in the area should take extreme caution.