WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR—65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. January 19, 2006: Con Edison reported to WPCNR moments ago that as of 2 P.M. today, 900 households are without power within the city. Joe Petta of the Con Edison Communications office told WPCNR that 1,000 city households had lost power during Wednesday storm, one hundred restored.

Commissioner of Public Works, Joseph Nicoletti, gave WPCNR his personal assessment of the city situation at this time reporting the following areas were without power: Saxon Woods off Mamaroneck Avenue; Heatherbloom, Windward Street, Prospect Street, Macy and Heatherbloom, Old Mamaroneck Road at Bolton and Bryant . Mr. Nicoletti said he was waiting for Con Ed engineers to clear wires at those areas to clear trees down with wires on them. The Commissioner reports 26 trees or limbs were downed in the city. The closest experience to this, he recalls was a microburst about a dozen years ago.

Nicoletti told WPCNR he works closely with a Con Ed district office contact advising him of where White Plains needs Con Ed assistance in determining whether downed wires are live wires or non-hot telephone or cable lines, before roads are cleared.

 The Commissioner said wire shutdowns are complicated depending on the kind of line it is high voltage or as low as 240 volts leading to homes. “You need a different (Con Ed) expertise to shut down different lines,” Nicoletti said. Sometimes, in clearing wires, the Con Ed engineer being sent out is unable to shut down the line and has to call for a specialist for the specific kind of wire. He did not pinpoint whether that was the case in White Plains the last two nights.

Nicoletti said the city faxes Con Ed areas that are out in situations such as the last 24 hours. Con Ed advises him when they are sending a crew out, and “we’re right on it,” Nicoletti reported that when Con Ed arrived at key areas of the city last night he had three crews ready to dispatch to go in after Con Ed determined it was safe for them to remove a tree or limb covered with a wire.

In the past Nicoletti said, Con Ed supplied liaisons to various cities in times of emergencies, but over the years, he said he has developed relationships that he can call on when he needs Con Ed’s assistance or attention to clearing main roads and special situations.

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WPCNR MOBILE UNIT. From White Plains Department of Public Safety with CitizeNetReporter. January 19, 2006: The City of White Plains, conducting repairs around the clock in cooperation with Con Edison crews have cleared much of the city’s blocked streets as a result of Wednesday’s wind storm. As of noon, Martin Gleeson of the Department of Public Safety advises motorists these streets remain closed:

Roadways at the following locations in White Plains remain closed at
this time for storm-related reasons:

Sammis & Richbell (electric wires)
53 Albemarle (electric wires)
Old Mamaroneck & Bolton (electric wires)
252 Soundview (large tree)

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WPCNR MOBILE UNIT. By John F. Bailey. January 19, 2006 UPDATED 11:A.M. E.S.T.: The City of White Plains has opened up major thru streets in the city as of midnight.

Mamaroneck Avenue closed about 12 hours, is now been opened its entire length within the city of White Plains as of midnight. A tree blocking the northbound lanes at Burke Hospital had caused the closing.

 Central Avenue opened as of 11:30 P.M. Wednesday evening. Bryant Avenue is now open the width of the city, East to West. Old Mamaroneck Road is still closed Southbound at Stratford Avenue, and is open Northbound from the Scarsdale line to Gedney Way. There is no access to Soundview Avenue from Old Mamaroneck Road.

Battle at Midnight. Battle Avenue had no access from the Harmon Ave Intersection at midnight. Area remained one of hardest hit in city, appears to be the last getting back to recovery. Photo, WPCNR News.

Battle Hill Avenue remains closed west bound to Central Avenue at Harmon Avenue at midnight. A vast section of Battle Hill of about 100 homes  remained dark along Chatterton and Robertson Avenues. Crews were working in that area when WPCNR cruised by.  Chatterton and Robertson are open to traffic for a portion of their length.

JUICE TO HEATLESS, LIGHTLESS SENIORS. The Battle Hill Housing building according to sources did not have a working backup generator to power oxygen units. The WPFD supplied power to individual apartments for oxygen units.  Photo by WPCNR News.

The senior housing complex, Battle Hill Housing on Harmon had been without power since 8 A.M. Wednesday morning as of midnite last night. A White Plains Fire Department truck is supplying some power to senior citizen oxygen units within the complex, on an individual apartment basis.The city only became aware of the power problem when notified by a resident at 3 P.M, Wednesday after the White Plains Housing Authority-run complex had been without heat and lights for seven hours.

Pockets of roads within Gedney Farms are still closed as of 12:30 A.M. E.S.T. Thursday. Heatherbloom is closed at the golf course and at Heatherbloom and Macy.

Greenridge Avenue in the Highlands still appears afflicted with outages

 Power is out on a “shotgun” pattern to homes in the southern portion of the city. Crews continue to work around the city at this hour.  One resident without power on Greenridge told WPCNR there were a great number of large trees downed throughout the southend and power had to be restored on an individual house by house basis, compounding the recovery effort.

No one sleeps with the County.

The County Center Disaster Relief Shelter, set up by Westchester County to house persons who were without electricity,  according to the American Red Cross officer in charge, Robert Reggio, had no residents staying over night. He said three persons came in to pick up food, but no one elected to stay. Reggio added that officials had told him that many persons were staying in their homes, even though advised of the shelter availability.

Red Cross workers on the scene at the County Center asked WPCNR to remind persons that in disaster situations, persons should call the police to find out about temporary shelter availability. They felt persons did not know about the shelter being open.

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WPCNR TRAFFIC REPORT. By John F. Bailey. January 18, 2006: He cautions not to go out because “you’ll get stuck in traffic.” Our correspondent said Mamaroneck Avenue is closed Northbound at Ridgeway, and Old Mamaroneck Road is closed, forcing him into numerous cuts through sidestreets, many of which were closed.

Traffic is a mess throughout the city, a motorist reports after returning home moments ago. In attempting to motor from the southern border of the city to Silver Lake, a 15 minute ride at best, beginning at 11:45 this morning,  he reported Ridgeway and Old Mamaroneck Road closed, forcing him to detour into side streets. He said Bryant Avenue was closed at Mamaroneck Avenue. He said a number sideroads in the Highlands were blocked with police tape and could not be used as detours. He said it took him a half hour to travel from the Rosedale and Mamaroneck Avenue area to the North Street bridge at I-287.

He cautions not to go out because “you’ll get stuck in traffic.” Our correspondent said Mamaroneck Avenue is closed Northbound at Ridgeway, and Old Mamaroneck Road is closed, forcing him into numerous cuts through sidestreets, many of which were closed.

The White Plains Traffic Department said as of 2:45 P.M. only one traffic light was out in the city at Mamaroneck and Quarropas but no list of closed streets had been compiled yet. The Mayor’s office reported that the Eastview School area and the Greenridge Avenue were without power, but had no reports of others. The Traffic Department confirmed downed wires could not be removed by the WPPFD until Con Edison turned off the power. The Traffic Department did report that power seemed to be restored to early intersections where a traffic light was out at Harding Avenue. No other information was available.

A call has been put into the busy Police Department for a complete list of street closings as the rush hour approaches.

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WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. From White Plains CitizeNetReporters. January 18, 2006 UPDATED 2 P.M. E.S.T. : Jim Benerofe, speaking from his office in downtown White Plains described traffic “as a mess” in White Plains. He reported power out, trees down and wires down in a number of areas of the city: Central Avenue (City Limits was closed, no power), Battle Hill, Bryant Avenue, North Broadway and the southern end of Mamaroneck Avenue, saying he saw crews out tending to downed sparking wires. Motorists are advised to avoid unnecessary travel and allow extra time to reach destinations.

The Mayor’s Office as of 2:30 reports that the  Eastview School area had no power and the Greenridge Avenue area had no power, but did not have any other areas to report.

A White Plains motorist  living in Rocky Dell reported that her school in Scarsdale had closed  this morning because of a lack of power. She reported a tree down across Soundview, OId Mamaroneck Road had a blockage, and she had to zig-zag all the way.

Another resident in Soundview, on Midchester Avenue called WPCNR at 2 P.M. to say that though her power was on, the wire on Midchester Avenue was still spitting sparks and that the Department of Public Safety could not remove it until Con Edison turned off the power. She said she was told there was no indication on when that would be. This may be the problem with additional downed wires throughout the city.

Westchester County Department of Communications reports there were scattered power outages throughout the region. Hardest hit are: Tuckahoe, Ossining, Mt. Vernon, Greenburgh, Yorktown, Davenport area of New Rochelle, Battle Hill area in White Plains, Tarrytown, Warburton area in Yonkers.

       Con Edison reported 16,000 customers without power as of 9 a.m. and the number is climbing. All power is not expected to be restored until tomorrow. Crews are working to restore power.

        New York State Electric and Gas reported 7,000 customer outages as of 11:30 a.m. Outages in all service areas including: North Salem, South Salem, Bedford, Pound Ridge, Lewisboro, Yorktown and Somers

     Westchester County is urging people to limit their travel and not to drive over downed wires. Bee-line buses and para-transit are operating with countywide delays and detours. Westchester County Airport remains open, but there are widespread cancellations. Check with your carrier for delays.

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Road conditions/closings as of 11 a.m.

Tappan Zee Bridge – As of 10:30 a.m. both lanes reopened.

Saw Mill River Pkwy. – Closed in both directions between exits 27 and 29 in Mt. Pleasant due to flooding. In New Castle, closed in both directions at Route 120. Northbound ramp exit 25 to Route 9A closed.

Bronx River Parkway – Southbound lanes blocked at Oak Street in Yonkers/ Mt. Vernon due to tree down. Traffic light out at Virginia Rd., North and South Traffic only no crossing traffic.

Hutchinson River Parkway – Exit 17 North northbound North Ave, N.R.

I684 – Exit 2 Southbound (Westchester County Airport) closed.

Route 118 – In Yorktown both directions closed at Hanover Street in Yorktown. In Somers, closed Southbound at Granite Springs Road.

The rash of downed trees and power disruptions began to roll across the city between 8:30 A.M. and 9 this morning.

A resident of Midchester Avenue in the Highlands reported at 8:45 A.M. electrical wires were downed along their  street by this morning’s 30 knots and higher winds. They reported that wires were on  the road shooting off electrical sparks and their power is out “all over the area.” The resident reported the White Plains Fire Department was on the scene. The resident observed there were “wires down, and sparking all over the place.”  According to that resident, the wire is still sparking, and a tree is smouldering.

Meanwhile, in Battle Hill, a resident  notified WPCNR at 8:40 A.M., “There’s a HUGE tree down on Battle Ave just up the hill from 119….. took out the power lines…. emergency crews decending on area now… just walked down from there before it fell and was getting pelted with debris from the wind.. hope nobody is hurt.”

Westchester County Airport at the time of these incidents, reported sustained winds from the south at 26 miles per hour at the time of these incidents, with gusts to 57 miles per hour. As of 10 A.M, winds have subsided.