I spent the past few hours interacting with Con Ed officials and meeting with the town’s Con Ed municipal liaison at Greenburgh Police HQ about the power restoration efforts. Con Ed’s leadership team organized a conference call this morning with municipal officials from around the county. We spoke with the Vice President of Electric Operations. He indicated that there were 81,000 customers out of power around the county, with 16,700 restorations so far.  In Greenburgh this morning there were 4,317 outages. A short time ago the number went down to 3,440.

WHAT CON ED IS DOING—THE PROCESS OF GETTING POWER RESTORED  

  High winds made restoration difficult yesterday. There are many trees that are down. Broken poles, etc..  Since yesterday’s nor’easter Con Ed has been giving priority to opening up roads, addressing low hanging wires. Con Ed has to clear away downed lines, trees and other debris.  They have to check for any damage to their system and assign crews and equipment to the area to begin repairs. They have to fix the power lines, transformers, or connections that caused  the problem so they can get power back on quickly to critical facilities like hospital, customers who depend on life support equipment, schools, water treatment facilities, fire houses.  If you live near one of these facilities you might be lucky –because when the power goes on at those locations, chances are better that it will also go on for you.  If a tree is blocking access to a road – and people can’t get out of their home – that will also be given priority.

CON ED PRIORITY SYSTEM

  Con Ed’s policy is to restore power to the lines and equipment that will bring power back to most people as quickly as possible. They restore all other customers who have lost power after that.

CON ED HAS THEIR OWN PRIORITY SYSTEM—TOWN DOESN’T CONTROL WHO GETS POWER ON FIRST

   Con Ed has taken the politics out of the restoration process. They have their own priority system and they follow their own process.

REPAIRS TAKE TIME---I PREDICT THAT SERVICE WILL BE OUT FOR SOME RESIDENTS FOR AT LEAST A FEW DAYS…
  Con Ed did not provide us with estimates as to when exactly service in Greenburgh will be restored. Although it took two weeks to restore service to most Greenburgh residents after SANDY, my guess is that most Greenburgh residents out of power will have their power restored by Tuesday. This is based on my experiences dealing with Con Ed.

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS –LACK OF STAFF  ------CON ED CALLING IN MUTUAL ASSISTANCE   CREWS FROM OTHER COMPANIES WILL START SHOWING UP TOMORROW AND MONDAY

  During our conference call Con Ed told municipal officials that restoration for most people will start tomorrow.   A problem: lack of crews. Some crews from around the country are expected to come to Westchester tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday.

MY GUESS—MOST OF GREENBURGH WILL HAVE POWER TUESDAY

  Most of Greenburgh will have power on Tuesday. Some today, others tomorrow and Monday.  

ALL DOWNED WIRES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED LIVE
  All downed wires should be considered live.  Con Ed placed yellow do not cross tapes near wires. But- some of the tapes have been knocked down by the winds. If you see a wire DO NOT GO NEAR IT. It could be dangerous. Con Ed is supposed to hire crews to stand near the downed wires.  If Con Ed crews are not protecting the wires – we have been assigning police to areas.

IF YOU CAN’T TAKE THE COLD THERE ARE TEMPORARY OPTIONS AVAILABLE

  If you are FREEZING there are some options available. The town has opened the Theodore Young Community Center as a shelter for those without power. It’s free and staffed by the CERT team. We have cots, showers, etc…  If you don’t want to sleep at a community center (two people took advantage of the shelter at the Theodore Young Community Center last night), I would be happy to call residents and ask if they would make a room available to someone out of power.  Or, you could contact friends, relatives elsewhere who have power.  My e mail is pfeiner@greenburghny.com.

I PROMISE TO TRY HARD TO PRESS CON ED TO GIVE OUR TOWN THE HIGHEST PRIORITY POSSIBLE—GETTING POWER RESTORED

  Last night, I was freezing like many of you. I know how stressed out and uncomfortable those without power are. I promise to work as hard as possible to get your power restored quickly. I’m not happy with the delays in restoring power and am doing everything I can to expedite the power restoration so you can live comfortably and happily in Greenburgh.  But, there is not much more that can be done if Con Ed doesn’t have the resources to restore everyone’s power quickly.

IF THERE ARE LIFE THREATENING MEDICAL ISSUES- PLEASE ADVISE

  Con Ed has a registry of people who are on life support and have medical emergencies. Please let Con Ed know if you, someone you know depends on life support equipment or has a medical emergency. They keep records of these customers and contact them when there are emergencies.  If you need help – and are not getting the help please e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com.

SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCES. I PROMISE TO GET BACK TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A CONCERN.

Paul Feiner

My cell phone is 914 438 1343