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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.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. From Con Edison Media Relations. (EDITED) March 14, 2010:

Con Edison crews continue responding to outages caused by a powerful storm that knocked trees and limbs into power lines throughout New York City and Westchester County. Approximately 187,000 customers were affected by the storm, far exceeding the number of outages caused by Hurricane Gloria in 1985, when 110,515 customers lost power.

As of 6 p.m. Sunday evening, the company had restored power to approximately 67,000 customers. Approximately 120,000 customers remained without power: 79,000 in Westchester County, 24,000 in Staten Island, 8,800 in the Bronx, 6,000 in Queens, 2,000 in Brooklyn, and about 100 in Manhattan.

Around Westchester County, of the 79,000 customers reporting outages, the areas with the most customers reporting outages continue to be Yonkers, 11,903; New Rochelle, 8,494; Greenburgh, 8,429; White Plains, 7,388; Mount Vernon, 6,372; Scarsdale, 5,870; Harrison, 4,014,Mamaroneck/Larchmont, 2,566; and Eastchester, 3,763.

Con Edison expects restoration to last throughout the week. The company has been securing mutual aid from utilities in several states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Massachusetts.

Con Edison has approximately 210 restoration crews now in the field, in addition to other field support personnel clearing roads and trees. The number of restoration crews is expected to grow to 350 tomorrow and 425 on Wednesday as more out-of-state crews arrive.

Con Edison has additional customer service representatives, electrical and construction crews, along with tree-clearing crews working around the clock to respond to customers and power outages that may occur.

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.