Westchester Reviewing Con Ed Commitments From 2018 Snowstorms

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — With thousands of Con Edison customers still without electric power a week after Tropical Storm Isaias tore through, Westchester County Executive George Latimer said county officials would revisit the commitments the utility company made in 2018 after back-to-back snowstorms left thousands of residents out of power for days.

Tuesday afternoon there were 5,895 Westchester customers out of service, 3,700 of them out because of Isaias, according to the Con Ed outage map. SEE: Con Ed Deletes Restoration Times For 7K Still Out Of Power

"We here in Westchester County are frustrated and angry," Latimer said in a Tuesday afternoon briefing. "Four-five-six days of being without power has caused tremendous problems for people."

He singled out New Castle officials for their anger and particularly town Supervisor Ivy Pool for being "caustic."

On Tuesday, Pool posted on Facebook an early morning exchange with the town's Con Ed liaison, which included her last line: "I don’t want to debate numbers again like we did with road closures so don’t bother calling me, but this needs to stop. We are the worst community in Westchester. Get the resources here and fix the power."

Particularly frustrating to local leaders has been inaccurate information from Con Ed both on the outage map and in text messages.

"For example, residents of the complex I reside at received a text message that our power was restored. It wasn't," Greenburgh town Supervisor Paul Feiner said Monday. "It's not fair for a major company like Con Ed to send residents inaccurate info. This is happening all over."

Local officials also expressed frustration about the lingering outages for internet service after still more conference calls with Optimum/Altice.

"There still is no work plan, nor on a municipal basis, any advice of the number of customers out of service and the number of crews assigned to restore service," said Bedford town Supervisor Chris Burdick in an email to residents. "We have been advised that the Verizon/Optimum lines are below the power lines and they cannot work on them until NYSEG/Con Edison has completed its work."

Burdick said the group is working on getting automatic credits for Optimum bills – "no promises, but we’re pushing."

Latimer said he would also fight with the utility companies for reimbursement not only for spoiled food but for electric bills.

"If you do not have power over an extended number of days you should not have to pay for that power," he said. "A lot of people are going to have to pay a full month electric bill."

Latimer promised to have local leaders join him and legislators in reviewing the commitments Con Ed made in 2018 after the Riley and Quinn storms, when 210,000 customers lost service and the company had to basically rebuild its delivery system in Westchester. SEE: Con Ed Planning $100M In Storm Protections For Westchester.

However, he reminded residents that it is New York State which regulates utilities.

He also promised to find and release information in the next two to three months about burying power lines, a project for which which many residents have argued on Facebook in the past week.