Officials Look to Scrutinize Con Edison’s Storm Response

Virtually all residents who lost power following Hurricane Sandy had their service restored by Monday morning but it remains uncertain what the implications will be for Con Edison amid a barrage of harsh criticisms of the utility.

Through its public relations office, Con Edison reported that at about 9 a.m. on Monday all customers who could be restored had their electricity returned. That does not include individual residents still out because there is damaged equipment that had to be replaced.

The restoration efforts included New Castle and North Castle, two of the hardest hit municipalities that had 90 and 98 percent, respectively, of those towns’ customers lose power.

Officials at every level of government demanded a full review of Con Edison’s operations.

“The electrical power restoration process took an inordinate amount of the village manager’s time, my time and the time of our staff,” Mount Kisco Mayor Michael Cindrich said. “We will be looking to Con Ed to review their own policies and procedures,” Cindrich said.

Mount Pleasant Supervisor Joan Maybury, whose town also didn’t escape the storm’s wrath, summed up most area officials’ sentiments about the poor communication and lack of responsiveness as residents searched in vain for reliable information.

“We continue to be frustrated with Con Ed’s response to this storm,” Maybury said last Friday. “The public needs clear answers regarding restoration. Unfortunately, Con Ed is unable to communicate this effectively. They do not give clear information to the town regarding operations.”

Frustrated residents not only had to put up with nearly two weeks without electricity in some cases, but last week as it turned colder in advance of the Nov. 7 nor’easter and snowstorm, those still without power were often provided with conflicting information. Chappaqua resident Kenneth Cooper said he was initially informed after the hurricane that his restoration date would be Nov. 7.  That projection was later pushed to Nov. 9.

Then last Friday, when Cooper was expecting power to return shortly, he visited Con Edison’s website, entered his address and received the emailed message: “We do not have a record of an outage at this location. If your power is out, you must let us know.”

By then, Cooper said he was upset because he was unable to talk with anyone directly about whether or the problem was a computer glitch or if Con Edison had lost track of his account.

Con Edison reported that the unprecedented damage caused by the storm and last week’s nor’easter slowed its restoration efforts. The utility’s media relations office issued statements pointing to the fact that five times the number of outages had been sustained starting on Oct. 29 compared to the second largest storm it had encountered, Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

Still, during the past week there were questions from various officials at every level of government questioning the future of Con Edison’s licensing agreement and calling on the Public Service Commission to hold the utility more accountable. Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti (D-Pleasantville) even urged County Executive Rob Astorino to launch proceedings to kick Con Edison out of Westchester.

County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz (D-Somers), whose district includes New Castle and is chairman of the Board of Legislators’ Environment and Energy Committee, said late last week that Con Edison “should be ashamed of themselves” for its poor response. He said the company had been hammered relentlessly and seemed apathetic as a result.

“I don’t think they care,” Kaplowitz said. “They have been beaten up so badly, they don’t seem to care.”

Kaplowitz said in the time between last year’s powerful storm and Hurricane Sandy little to nothing had been done regarding storm preparation or changes in procedures. He vowed that elected officials will not let that lapse this time.

Meanwhile, residents and volunteers did what they could to keep warm and comfort others.

The Red Cross shelter at Chappaqua Crossing had an average of about 60 people a night that needed a place to stay, said Russell DeJonge, a volunteer from Grand Haven, Mich. who was deployed to the area.

He said the shelter opened at the Boys & Girls Club in Mount Kisco but because the facility lost power the shelter was transferred to the former Reader’s Digest property on Nov. 1. The even received 14 people who stayed over last Wednesday night because they were stranded in the snowstorm.

North Castle Councilwoman Diane DiDonato-Roth reported to the town board on Nov. 8 that the town’s shelter at Hergenhan Recreation Center in Armonk had received more than 3,000 visitors, had provided more than 1,000 showers and 100 sleepovers.