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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. March 11, 2018:
The major communities in Westchester County have had most customers without power restored over the last 24 hours by Con Edison. As of 12 noon, 1,767 remain without power in small pockets across the county.
Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Rye, Pelham have most been restored to power.
To check on your community go to the storm map here:
https://apps.coned.com/stormcenter/external/default.html
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WPCNR MILESTONES. From the League of Women Voters. March 11, 2018:
The League of Women Voters of White Plains will present their Civic Engagement Award to Beth Smayda. The award will be presented from 3 – 5 p.m. at the home of Janice Abbott and Richard Benjamin 177 Soundview Avenue in White Plains.
A public finance professional for over twenty-five years, Beth was elected to the White Plains Common Council in 2009 and began serving as a councilwoman in January 2010. She was Chair of the City Budget and Management Advisory Committee throughout her eight years on the Council and was chosen by her Council to be Council President in 2012 and 2013.
Beth has a long history of involvement in the
White Plains community, having served as a past
President of the White Plains League of Women
Voters, Chair of the League’s City Budget
Committee for twenty years and Chair of the City Government Committee.She also served on the White Plains PTA Council, chairing the School Budget and Legislation Committees, work for which she received the PTA Jenkins Award.
Beth’s public finance career began at Moody’s Investors Service after working as a researcher on intergovernmental and local government financial issues for the New York State Legislative Commission on State Local Relations. At Moody’s she was an Assistant Vice President in the Northeast Group.
She then went to MBIA where she worked for 18 years analyzing, marketing, executing, monitoring, and remediating municipal bond transactions. At MBIA she managed the Public Finance Enterprise Insured Portfolio Management Group, headed up the Armonk office of the Public Finance Western New Business Group, and was Managing Director and Head of the Healthcare New Business Group. Beth then went to BondFactor Company as Managing Director and is now a Director at the ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation.
In 2006 Beth co-founded the Northeast Woman in Public Finance
(NEWPF), a network of 1,000+ women from all fields in the public finance
industry. She served as Co-President through 2012 and was named in
December 2013 as a Trailblazing Woman in Public Finance by the Bond
Buyer. She has been a long-time member of the Municipal Analysts of
New York.
Beth received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Public
Administration from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois and a Master
of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas,
Austin, TX.
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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey. March 10, 2018, 12:50 P.M. UPDATED 12:54 P.M.:
After Weschester County Director of Operations Joan MacDonald announced Con Edison had 13,000 customers without power in the county and NYSEG was reporting 6,941 (a total of 19,941), at noon yesterday at the County Center News Conference Solidarity Rally of 58 elected officials and customer victims of the storm– Con Ed’s Service Outage map (now restored to the Coned website (as of Friday morning), showed 7,254 Customers out of service this morning.
Con Ed has restored 5,746 of those Customers without power yesterday at noon by 12 noon today. NYSEG figures are not immediately available.
Check the solar map for your area at this link–copy and paste it in your browser and hit go:
https://apps.coned.com/stormcenter/external/default.html
As of noon, only 4 customers remain in White Plains without power.
The Peekskill, Shrub Oak, Mohegan Lake Yorktown areas have been substantially restored to power according to the outage map.
Mamaroneck is the most out of power in the county with 327 Customers without power — in their 8th day.
Cortlandt still as of 12 noon has 262 Customers without power.
The Scarsdale area as 192 out of electricity. Greenville close to Scarsdale, 248, and south on Mamaroneck Avenue, 19. The Quaker Ridge area adjacent the Hutchinson River Parkway is showing 38 Customers out on the map
Harsdale shows 50 Customers out of power. Rye shows 55.
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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. From Consolidated Edison. Released Saturday 9 A.M. March 10, 2018:
Forget about merely trying to repair damages from last week’s back-to-back storms in the Northeast, said Con Edison’s Chairman and CEO John McAvoy on Friday during a press conference at the New York headquarters .
“With winter storms we’re used to seeing trees and limbs come down and take down our wires and interrupt power for our customers,” McAvoy said. “These storms — the tree damage we’re seeing is much more extensive.
“And the result of that is we’re not just repairing our system, in many cases we’re actually rebuilding it,” he said about the storms’ impacts, which unloaded heavy, wet snow and whipped roaring 70-mph-plus winds through ConEd’s service territory, first on March 2 and then on March 4.
McAvoy said the number of outages that ConEd saw in both storms was “very significantly higher” than what’s typically seen for these levels of storms. “If you compare it to Hurricane Irene, which occurred in 2011, 50 percent more outages in Westchester from the storms than from the hurricane,“ he said.
“What we saw that caused so much damage was a three-fold part of the weather equation. First, extremely high winds with gusts up to 70 miles per hour, a heavy, wet snow that really stuck to the trees, and ground and soil that were saturated and that allowed many trees to become fully uprooted as a result of the high levels of precipitation. This is basically completely a tree event,” McAvoy said.
As of this morning, ConEd reported that crews have restored service for about 187,000 of the roughly 200,000 customers that lost it during that short span of time.
The mutual aid process that’s set up to allow utilities throughout the country to share resources with each other quickly located many crews from other areas to the Northeast to support ConEd.
“We helped Puerto Rico in their time of need. When the second storm hit we decided to recall our employees from Puerto Rico and they are now back and added to the restoration,” added McAvoy.
ConEd currently has 2,000 people working in the field, including about 600 ConEd employees and approximately 1,400 mutual aid workers, said McAvoy. “And we expect that we will get another 400 over the next several days.”
Company officials acknowledged earlier on Friday that some of the toughest work remains, with more than 86 Westchester County roads closed, more than 600 of the outages involving single customers, and numerous locations having severe tree damage.
Crews restoring service will first focus on repairs to critical facilities, such as hospitals, municipal pumping stations and schools, according to a ConEd statement. Customers who are still out of power from last week’s storms will be given “the highest priority for restoration,” the company said, and restoration efforts will continue on a 24-hour basis until every customer is restored.
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THE WHITE PLAINS WEEK
THE CON ED EDITION!
MARCH 9 PROGRAM IS ON THE AIR
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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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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. Response from Con Edison Media Relations. 3:20 P.M. E.S.T. March 8, 2018 UPDATED 5:11 P.M. EST:
This just in: from Con Ed Media relations. At 5 PM, Con Edison’s Allen Drury reports 220 roads are blocked in Westchester County.
WPCNR contacted Con Edison Media Relations about questions raised at the Yorktown Media Briefing conducted by County Executive George Latimer this morning and he sent these answers earlier this afternoon to WPCNR
Here are the answers to WPCNR’s questions
WPCNR: At the Yorktown Police Department briefing held by C.E. Latimer, Mayor of Yorktown,Senator Murphy, Mr. Latimer was unclear as to whether Con Ed is now providing and verifying Customers Out of Power with the Police Department (s) in Yorktown–and surrounding north county communites. Are you sharing real time numbers now with the police departments? This was a big criticism leveled in the briefing this morning?
ALLEN DRURY, CON EDISON MEDIA RELATIONS: We provide outage numbers in near real time via our publicly available outage map. The map contained some outdated numbers for a time this week but that is rare.
It is usually accurate and updates every 15 minutes.
During emergencies like this one, we hold regular calls with municipal officials in which we provide updates on progress and any other information that is requested, including outage numbers.
We have numerous other contacts with municipal officials outside of those calls during emergencies.
WPCNR: When you dispatch crews to repower in view of the significant new outages…do you give each crew a series of assignments geographically close together ? Are you doing that now?
Mr. Drury: Yes. Crews are deployed strategically and the locations of areas where repairs are needed is a factor in that deployment. This is for the reason you mentioned. (See additional information in answer 4.)
WPCNR: Does Con Edison have a statement on Mr. Latimer’s call for the top level management to step down and managers be replaced do to the communication deficiencies many are alleging yesterday and today?
Mr. Drury: We are focusing on the restoration of customers from the two storms. We understand customers’ frustration with not having power. Living without power for a short time is difficult. Living without power for days is nearly unbearable.
We want customers to have power as badly as they want to have it. That is why we are working 24/7 to get customers back into service. Most of our workers live in the communities we serve, so our customers are our relatives, friends and neighbors. In fact, many of our crew members who are working long hours doing dangerous, arduous work go home at the end of their shifts to homes without power.
WPCNR: Mr. Latimer alleged that Con Ed could have managed restorations better by direct communication with the police departments, instead of just making decisions on greatest numbers out. Do you have a comment on that?
Mr. Drury: During outages, utilities, including Con Edison, prioritize repairs that will bring the largest number of customers back the fastest. In addition (as mentioned in a previous answer) we consider the locations of areas where repairs are needed so that crews maximize time spent making repairs, not driving long distances from job to job. We also give priority to critical customers, such as police and fire stations, hospitals, municipal water treatment plants, etc.
WPCNR: Is Con Ed adopting a new strategy with the tripling of the Customer Out numbers in Westchester?
Mr. Drury: We are prioritizing the restoration of customers who lost service in the first storm, last Friday. No question, yesterday’s storm affects restoration.
It was incredibly destructive in Westchester. More than 100 ( Updated to 220 as of 5 P.M.) additional roads were blocked by fallen trees and debris. The storm forced us to take crews off the road for a period, as we had to sharply curtail work during the storm.
We were able to restore service to all but 6,500 of the approximately 140,000 customers affected by the first storm.
Yesterday’s storm affects restoration and caused the numbers to rise again.
WPCNR: Is there a statement from the top management of Con Ed on the criticism of restoration strategy leveled the last two days, today and yesterday?
Mr. Drury, Con Edison: We are focused on the restoration. Once the restoration is complete, we will examine all aspects of the restoration and look for areas to improve.
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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. From Con Edison Media Relations. March 8, 1018 9:05 A.M.
Allen Drury of Con Edison media relations just reported these conditions to WPCNR:
WC outages: about 25,700
– Yes, yesterday’s conditions forced us to sharply curtail restoration. This, of course, was for safety reasons.
– Yesterday’s storm caused extensive tree damage. This was the cause of the outage numbers shooting back up. Dozens of new road closures”
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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.