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.  Based on information from Con Edison Media Relations. March 15, 2010: Based on a news release from Con Edison at 8 P.M Monday evening, the company reports it is restoring all of New York city outages before finishing off Westchester County restoration, even though Westchester County as of  11 P.M. has 56,538 customers out and all of New York city as of 8 P.M. has only  14,820 customers without power. Con Edison restored approximately 11,000 customers since 12 noon Monday when 67,000 in the county were without power.

At 11 P.M., 56,538 Westchester County customers are without power, with Yonkers,Greenburg, White Plains Scarsdale and Mount Vernon leading the number of outages: Yonkers has 14,095 out (up 2,000 since 12 noon Monday), Greenburgh, 8,012 of 18,702 residents, down less than 1,000 since noon; Mount Vernon,6,966, New Rochelle, 7,608 (25% of Con Ed customers there); and White Plains,5,667.  Scarsdale according to Con Edison has 80% of Con Ed customers without power, 4,728 of 6,005.

Elsewhere around Westchester County, Tuckahoe has 1,246 out; Tarrytown, 1,429; Rye City, 2,051 (33%); Port Chester, 1068; North Castle, 1,694; Mount Pleasant (County Executive Astorino’s hometown), 1,212;Larchmont/Mamaroneck, 2,605; Irvington, 2,066; Hastings, 646; Harrison, 2,848; Eastchester, 3,125; Dobbs Ferry, 543;Briarcliff, 555; Ardsley, 774.

Con Edison has approximately 500 restoration crews now in the fieldas of 8 P.M. Monday , in addition to other field support personnel clearing roads and trees.  The number of restoration crews is expected to grow to 675 by Wednesday as additional out-of-state crews arrive.

The company expects to have all storm-related outages in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx restored by Wednesday afternoon, followed by Staten Island on Thursday evening, and Westchester on Friday, it said tonight.

With the ground softened by a huge snowstorm two weeks ago, an ugly mix of over four inches of rain and winds of up to 70 m.p.h. combined to knock trees over like matchsticks over the weekend, felling power lines and complicating clearance efforts, especially in Westchester County and Staten Island.

Over 173,000 lost power, easily eclipsing the outages caused by Hurricane Gloria in 1985, which affected 110,515 customers. 

As of 8 p.m. tonight, the company had restored power to over 100,000 customers. Approximately 70,000 customers remained without power: 55,000 in Westchester County, 9,000 in Staten Island, 3,700 in the Bronx, 1,470 in Queens and 650 in Brooklyn.

Con Edison distributed 31,500 pounds of dry ice at four different locations today, and will resume distribution tomorrow (Tuesday) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Customers are urged to call Con Edison immediately to report any outages at 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). Customers can also report power interruptions or service problems at www.conEd.com and on their cell phones and PDAs.  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 have already reported their outage need not call Con Edison again.  They will be called by Con Edison when their estimated restoration time has been established.

During the restoration process, primary distribution feeders are restored first, with the highest priority given to restoring lines that supply the most customers.  Next, the crews fix secondary facilities, such as transformers and secondary cables, again with highest priority given to lines supplying the greatest number of customers.  Individual services, lines serving a single home, will be restored as crews become available.

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WPCNR THE FEINER REPORT. From Paul Feiner, Town of Greenburgh Supervisor. (EDITED) March 15, 2010: Paul Feiner, Greenburgh Town Supervisor complained tonight that Con Ed is putting Westchester last on the list of communities that are getting their power restored.

A press release sent out by Con Ed on Monday night indicated that all of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will get back power Wednesday. Staten Island will get back power Thursday and Westchester will get back power on Friday. This is unfair. Feiner said in a news release: Con Ed should be giving equal treatment to all counties that are impacted by the power outages.

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner. March 15, 2010: I received the following update from the police chief. I’m disappointed that progress has been so slow and will be asking Con Ed to assign more resources to Greenburgh. (6,500 are without power). We apologize for the inconveniences.

Please be advised that we are opening up the Theodore Young Community Center tonight as a shelter for those without power. The phone of the center (32 Manhattan Ave) is 989 3600.  

If you know of an elderly resident/disabled resident who you are worried about who you can’t contact and who may be out of power – please advise and we’ll check up on them. I am very sorry that so many Greenburgh residents are being inconvenienced during this storm and appreciate what you are experiencing.Please feel free to call me on my cell: 438 1343 (I don’t have power at home so my home phone isn’t working).

Here are the road closures of of 3:30 P.M. in the Town of Greenburgh:

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Lou Bruno, President, Bryant Gardens  March 15, 2010 (This is a letter sent by the leader of the Bryant Gardens cooperative on Bryant Avenue to Mayor Adam Bradley, it is one plight of just one of hundreds of apartment complexes around Westchester County that are without power.):

Adam

Thank you for taking quick action to restore power and services in White Plains after the storm.

I am writing to inform you of the outages at Bryant Gardens in the hope that together we can improve the priority of our Con Ed service ticket (WE10046590).

Roughly half of Bryant Gardens — Buildings 1 – 7, with 196 families, including all street and outdoor lights — has had no power since Saturday night.  The affected buildings are serviced by an oil-fired central boiler used for heat (a hot water system) and domestic hot water that can’t be run until power is restored.  Electricity is needed for the pumps in the boiler room (208, 3-phase) that distribute the hot water and pumps in the buildings that circulate the water.

Unlike families in one and two-family residences, that may have alternatives, ours have no safe way to heat their apartments or generate hot water for washing and bathing.

Many — about one-third — of our residents are senior citizens with limited means and greater needs for heat and hot water than others.

The buildings without power get it from a feeder entering the complex from Bryant Ave at the beginning of Bryant Crescent.  Two of our buildings are on Bryant Ave and have power, although one has no heat and hot water.  The other six buildings get power from a Bryant Ave feeder entering at the end of Bryant Crescent and have power.

Buildings 1-7 have no power because a large tree was uprooted by the storm, fell across Bryant Crescent, and severed the power lines on the other side of the roadway.  Save-A-Tree was engaged and cleared the roadway within a few hours after the tree fell.  A Con-Ed “safety representative” appeared on site this morning and has cordoned off the roadway until repair crews can arrive.

We hope you’ll be able to use this information to get Con Ed to assign a higher priority to the large number of Bryant Gardens residents without services, including 60-70 senior citizen families.

Thanks for your help!

—
Best regards,

Louis J. Bruno, President
Bryant Gardens Corporation

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WPCNR THE POWER SURVEY. March 15, 2010: As the “Storm with No Name” continues to make life miserable for Westchester County, the revelation last night by Con Edison that the out-of-state emergency repair crews they always rely on in the aftermath of devastating storm damage come “when they can” and when the out-of-state emergency crews can come is something that no one knew.

Here was a storm that the Weather Channel, the local Accuweather boys and weather alarmists were saying last Wednesday was going to have high winds and gale force potential, 50 miles per hour at least. 48 hours warning.

Con Edison had well-in-advance warning. The Storm with No Name came in Friday night grew in intensity all day Saturday, damage started piling up across the region by twilight Saturday night and we went from 11,000 customers out at 6 P.M. to 70,000 customers out in Westchester alone by Sunday morning, double the outages experienced four weeks ago in the blizzard.

Early Saturday night Con Edison decided to call in emergency crews from outlying states, which are arriving Monday, 48 hours later. Westchester is supposed to turn on by the end of the week.

However, the crews in the middle west coming in had clear weather the middle of last week. Con Edison told WPCNR late Sunday evening, the emergency crews “were reluctant” to commit their crews to Con Edison and leave their areas unprotected.

Well, the damage done by this storm which flirted with a Force 1 hurricane intensity at times (75 miles per hour sustained winds puts you in the “Big Storm League”) speaks volumes about how awesome in terms of what a Force 2 or Force 3 hurricane would do in the county and the devastation that under the present system, Con Edison and all the emergency crews in surrounding regions would simply not be able to correct for months.

With trees still lying across roads and only one Con Edison crew working White Plains according to the city, it is clear that the policians, the Public Service Commission, the Legislature have to address Con Edison and other power companies inability to handle major disasters efficiently.

Granted Con Edison did a solid job in the blizzard four weeks ago, but the blizzard only blew in the 30 to 35 mile an hour wind range.

It is time that Con Edison got some help. If Con Edison cannot call in Emergency Forces to tidy up fallen live wires in an efficient manner because they do not have relief crews, even when they have 48 hours advance notice, when can they? When will they ever?

What is needed is a force that either Con Edison maintains, or works with fire departments to train the local fire departments to remove the wires, or a division of the National Guard is trained to deploy into hard-hit devastated areas. It is clear that the parocial interests of crews from other states with obvious divided responsibilities cannot respond fast enough to handle emergencies everywhere where power outages are concerned. And this is not a knock on those great guys from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee who have helped us in the past. This is about the practicality.

What do Mr. and Mrs. White Plains think….and Mr. and Mrs. Westchester, all70,000 customers who are waiting for the sight of relief; the fire departments and Departments of Public Works waiting for a “Con Ed man?” 

Tell the hand-wringing legislators and bureaucrats who are responsible for what passes for “emergency preparedness” that it is time Westchester could handle a large outage a lot faster than they can do under the present system.

ONE crew helping White Plains the last 36 hours as was revealed in yesterday’s city hall meeting in White Plains means you have a system that can’t work when this area is hit with a really big storm.

Tell us what you think in the poll at the right.