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. March 17, 2010: As of 10:15 A.M. E.D.T., Con Edison’s Storm Center reports 24,299 Westchester customers are still without power as the electric powerup continues into Day 4 with hundreds of out-of-state power crews coming to the County’s rescue. Most of the out-of-state help arrived yesterday morning and more are expected today swelling the “connection force” to 675 crews.

The hardest hit communities continue to suffer, though outages have been reduced approximately 40% to 50%  in Yonkers, Greenburgh, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Scarsdale and White Plains. Yonkers currently has 7,147 customers disconnected; Mount Vernon,6,604; Greenburgh, 6,386; Scarsdale, 3,355; and White Plains, 1,626.

Running down the Con Edison list, many of the rural villages in northern Westchester are in the single digits, with the more populous areas from the center of the county to the Bronx still suffer outages in the hundreds, though down significantly from earlier in the week numbers.

Ardsley reports 60 out; Bedford, 22; Briarcliff/Ossining, 544; Bronxville,353; Dobbs Ferry,549; Eastchester 2,034;Elmsford,464; Harrison,1,535; Hastings,469; Irvington, 2,040; Larchmont/Mamaroneck, 526; Mount Pleasant,872; New Castle,73; North Castle, 536; The Tarrytowns, 1,176;The Pelhams, 93; Pleasantville,76; Port Chester, 409; Rye City, 1,874.

Rob Astorino, the Westchester County Executive, who lives in Mount Pleasant had his power restored within eight hours by Sunday evening,  according to The Journal News, although Mount Pleasant as of Monday morning had 649 customers still out, one of the lower totals compared to the major cities and of course, Scarsdale.  Mr.Astorino was quoted in the Journal News today as saying, “I do think at this point Con Ed has been responding pretty well.” It was Astorino’s first comment on Con Edison’s emergency performance, other than saying Westchester would be applying for disaster aid.

Today, Con Edison made this statement to the media:

Con Edison, with an assist from out-of-state utility crews and contractors, has placed nearly 147,000 electrical customers back in service since last weekend’s devastating wind and rainstorm.

“We’ve made significant progress, but we won’t be satisfied until every one of our customers is back in service,” said John Miksad, senior vice president of Electric Operations.  “We will have even more out-of-state utility crews on the streets today and expect to see the number of outages drop significantly again by this evening.”

As of 6 a.m. today, approximately 26,000 customers remained without power.  The areas most affected were Westchester, where approximately 24,000 customers were out, and Staten Island, where fewer than 1,200 remained without service. The Bronx has about 700 customers out of service.

Thousands of company support personnel are continuing to work around the clock to help the crews that are addressing the most destructive rain and windstorm to hit New York City and Westchester in decades.

Restoration crews are expected to swell to 675 today as the additional out-of-state utility crews arrive.  Utilities from Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky and Massachusetts are assisting Con Edison’s crews. 

The company expects to have all storm-related outages in the Bronx restored by this afternoon, followed by Staten Island on Thursday evening, and Westchester on Friday.  All Brooklyn and Queens customers affected by the storm have been restored.

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. March 16, 2010: White Plains residents were coming back on as the day wore on today as reinforcement power crews convoyed into town. Power crews from Michigan and Hauppaugh, Long Island were spotted working the blacked out Gedney Farms area. By 6:30 P.M. White Plains Con Edison customers without power had been slashed to 2,837 down about 3,000 from the noon-hour.

Across the county approximately 12,000 customers had been restored within six hours according to the Con Edison Storm Center figures.

Here’s the power story as of 6:30 P.M.: Of the cities hit hardest, Yonkers reports 9,021 customers without power, down 5,000 since Monday midnight; Greenburgh, 6,991; Mount Vernon, 6,870; New Rochelle,5,508; Scarsdale, 4,310; and White Plains,2,837; Harrison, 2,615; Larchmont/Mamaroneck, 2,212;  Irvington, 2,040; Rye City, 2,038.  The pace of restoring power has picked up considerably since reinforcement power crews arrived.

In other areas: Ardsley reports 108 unconnected; Briarcliff/Ossining, 556; Bronxville, 401; Dobbs Ferry, 574; Eastchester, 1,550; Elmsford, 471;  Mount Pleasant, 1,130; North Castle, 651; The Tarrytowns, 1,463; The Pelhams, 172; Port Chester, 508.

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WPCNR CITY CIRCUIT. From the Mayor’s Office. March 16, 2010: On the city website in an update dated March 14 (Sunday), the city provides a short solution as to why it takes so long to clear city streets of fallen trees. Incidentally, the city also reports the YMCA on Mamaroneck Avenue is offering free showers to the public until 9 P.M. The report on the DPW-Con Ed repair delay notes:

” (White Plains) DPW crews have already cleared the trees that had no power lines attached to them on Holbrook Road, Bayne Place, Barker Avenue, Bryant Avenue, Midland Avenue, Richbell Road, Alan Drive, Patricia Lane, Lake Street and North Broadway, Rosedale Avenue, Whitewood Lane, Soundview Avenue, Vermont Avenue, Chatham Place, Gedney Esplanade, Rolling Ridge Road, Ridgeway, Miles Avenue, Prospect Avenue, South Broadway, Longview Avenue, and Ridgeview.

DPW crews cannot touch trees that have high voltage wires entangled in them. It’s illegal and unsafe. Before they can clear a tree, they must get approval from a Con Edison electrical inspector because the wires may still be energized. (Editor’s Note: It is unclear whether a third Con Edison crew then comes in and replaces the severed wires.)

The Prospect Park area was hard hit because all the main roads were cut off because of downed trees and power lines. 

Con Edison brought in a crew at 8am Sunday to clear the area. Two trees fell across the street from the White Plains High School, bringing down 13,000 volt lines. Those lines were disconnected by Con Edison.  There was also a downed tree blocking Old Mamaroneck Road by Hazelton Avenue, and another downed tree on Mamaroneck Avenue near the Harrison border.

Some secondary roads that have downed trees will be cleared.  They include Midland Avenue, Soundview , Gedney Esplanade,  Church Street, Westview, Leith Place, Jefferson Avenue, and Vermont Avenue. (This presumably has taken place by now, late Tuesday afternoon.)

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. March 16, 2010: Con Edison crews working with out-of-state help, powered up 11,000 Westchester Customers since midnight Monday. Yonkers outages were trimmed by some 3,000 customers. Yonkers currently has 11,295 customers without electricity;  Mount Vernon, 7,024; New Rochelle, 6,975; Greenburgh, 6,905;  White Plains, 5,075; and Scarsdale, 4,667 (over 75% of the Con Ed customer base  is affected there.

In other afflicted areas of the county, 1,693 customers are without power in the Tarrytowns; Tuckahoe, 1,247; Rye City, 2,026; Port Chester, 479;  the Pelhams, 919; North Castle, 886; Mt. Pleasant, 1,355; Larchmont/Mamaroneck,1,860; Irvington, 2043; Hastings, 633; Harrison, 2,274; Eastchester, 2,198; Elmsford, 950; Bronxville, 459; Briarcliff/Ossining, 556 and Ardsley, 116.

At 8 A.M. Tuesday morning, Con Edison issued this communique,partially reproduced here:

“As of 6 a.m. today, the company had restored power to over 100,000 customers. Approximately 59,000 customers remained without power: 50,000 in Westchester County, 5,200 in Staten Island, 2,600 in the Bronx, 500 in Queens and 250 in Brooklyn.

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

Con Edison has approximately 600 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 675 by Wednesday as additional out-of-state crews arrive.”

On Sunday evening,Con Edison told WPCNR that outside crews from other states were first called for assistance early Saturday evening.

Con Edison in a statement from John Miksad, to the New York Times, said the Con Edison weather forecasts had not indicated the storm being so powerful: “We had in-house forecasts that something was going to converge with winds and rain, but we didn’t think it would be this much.”

 Another Con Ed spokesperson, Allen Drury  said Sunday evening to WPCNR that out-of-state crews could not be called in, in advance because, they had to assure they were not needed in their own home service areas before they could leave.

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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.