Conned again

[shunn]

ConEd's statement:

NEW YORK - Con Edison wants its customers in Northwest Queens to know that our crews are doing everything possible to restore power to its customers affected by the recent heat wave. The damage to our equipment was significant and extensive. We worked very closely with customers, businesses and city officials this week to ensure that outages weren't more widespread. We have hundreds of crews working around the clock in the area to assess the damage and repair many power cables, and will keep our customers updated as best as possible as to when full restorations will occur.

We appreciate their continued cooperation and patience during this difficult time. [that's the whole thing, really]

Ah, yes, that clears everything up. At least the mayor showed up to talk tough, as reported by the New York Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg held a news conference in Astoria Park to reassure residents that he was pressing Consolidated Edison to restore power and telling them he was sending hundreds of city workers to help them.

Some residents of the affected areas complained that the city has ignored a prolonged blackout that affected several neighborhoods in western Queens, which happens to be where most of the city's power plants are located....

Asked why it took him four days to visit the affected neighborhoods, survey the extent of the power losses and address the problem, Mr. Bloomberg said he was working closely with Con Edison, pressuring it to restore electricity.

Asked when power would be restored, he said by Sunday, if not earlier, but added, "This is a business where there are no guarantees."

As for why only Queens neighborhoods were affected, the mayor said Con Edison officials explained that 10 of the 22 feeder cables bringing power from the regional power grid to western Queens had been damaged, causing "a sort of cascading effect." Power surged into the remaining cables, overloading them.

He said all but three cables have been repaired, and power had been restored to major buildings, including the Citicorp building in Long Island City and on Rikers Island, which had to use emergency generators at one point.

"It sounds a bit archaic," the mayor said, explaining that 300 Con Edison teams would go through the affected neighborhoods, "opening every single manhole cover" to look for problems with electrical cables. They will also patrol streets looking for darkened houses, to find the areas still lacking power.

He said Con Edison would consider accepting an offer from the Long Island Power Authority to use some of its work crews.

Helen Marshall, the Queens borough president, said, "It’s ironic that people who can look at these generators, most of them from their windows, are suffering from this outage."  [full article]

We don't have it as bad as some. We have little or no power on the circuit to the front of the house, and none to any of the overhead lights, but we have enough power in the back of the house to keep the fridge and a small window A/C unit running, and it's only been this way since late Tuesday night. But still, the darkened neighborhood is eerie as hell at night, people are restless and impatient as the neighborhood simmers, there is still chaos at intersections where people don't know what how to proceed when traffic lights or switches aren't working, and the most frequently spotted activity of ConEd crews is standing around smoking.

I'm not the first to ask this, but I wonder how long it would have taken the mayor to show up and ConEd to restore power if this had been Manhattan? Or if ConEd incurred a power-loss penalty from Astoria like it no doubt does with the Citicorp building in Long Island City?

Comments

[sallytuppence.livejournal.com]

Wow. Sucks.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

That pretty much sums it up!

[steelbrassnwood.livejournal.com]

That sucks, Bill, I'm sorry. We had a similar experience two years ago in my neighborhood, and the response wasn't much better. For what it's worth, I did eventually get paid for my spoiled food.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

I remember that now. It's good to see that ConEd has learned its lesson and has upgraded its infrastructure in the meantime!

[rajankhanna.livejournal.com]

That completely sucks. I am extremely wary of ConEd and the whole system in New York. I hope they get it sorted, soon.

[barb-krasnoff.livejournal.com]

That's nasty. And yeah, I have the strongest suspicion that if this were a Manhattan neighborhood -- well, a neighborhood below 120th St., anyway -- it would have been totally fixed by now.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

That's my suspicion as well. And I'm rather surprised, given how upscale Astoria's population has been becoming. And angry.

[tritia.livejournal.com]

In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, we had a brownout for 2 nights and then a total blackout another night this week due to a transformer fire. This was before Queens was hit. I'm sure Con Ed's has their hands full this week.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

Northwest Queens has been having problems since at least Monday. If the first problem had gotten prompt attention—or, God forbid, the infrastructure had been upgraded during a time when electrical demand was low—then the problem might not have kept getting bigger. You seem to indication you still have power now, right? Some of the most desperate people in my neighborhood have been without power for more than four days.

I'm not saying ConEd's not busy, but they don't seem very smart, and their communications with the public have been for shit.

[tritia.livejournal.com]

Yes, we have power now after 3 days and ConEd is still on our street working. My comment was left to imply that the grid problem is wider spread than Northwest Queens.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

D'oh, sorry! Yes, thanks for the reminder that we're not the only ones having problems. I remember how we felt a couple of days ago when only Yonkers and the Bronx were getting mentioned in the news.

Hmmm, now they decide to count? - From Colin

[(Anonymous)]

Just caught this online - seems like ConEd is just getting around to figuring out what we have known for days...

Con Edison says there are 25-thousand customers without power in Northwest Queens -- not two thousand as first thought.

Con Edison says the higher number was reached after crews made visual inspections of the damage to cables and block-by-block surveys, Con Edison estimates that 25-thousand customers in the area are without power. Previous estimates were based on the number of customers who had called the company to say they were without electricity.
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_202100512.html

Re: Hmmm, now they decide to count? - From Colin

[shunn.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe their original estimate failed to take into the account the number of people who tried to call them and couldn't ever get through. Like me.

Re: Hmmm, now they decide to count? - From Colin

[(Anonymous)]

or the number of people that can't use their phones when the power is out...

Re: Hmmm, now they decide to count? - From Colin

[shunn.livejournal.com]

That too! More and more people have powered base units with cordless phones. Not to mention some with only cell phones that need recharging, I'm sure.

Lets keep a cool head.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you heard reports of people throwing spoiled eggs at CONED crews working on the streets. You wanna talk about being stupid, lets talk about that too.

The current state of affairs in North Westetern queens is nothing short of dire. We need CONED to quickly restore power to our communities so that we can start the process of putting our homes and business' back in order. I strongly believe that the utility should shoulder some of the cost in helping us to accomplish that task, and with that being said I also believe that they they our support and cooperation so that they can expedite the process of restoring safe and reliable electricity. Lets keep cool heads and allow CONED the space and resources to do do the job that they need to do. Their vast presence all over queens is encouraging. As I left for work on Friday Morning I saw one crew digging a trench off steinway, literally sweat and blood dripping from a work injury to his forehead; that evening I returned and that same crew, albeit with the injured worker bandaged, was now safeguarding and doing other work with cable they had pulled through that ditch. They're obviously doing everything they can to correct this problem let us at least give them that much respect.

Re: Lets keep a cool head.

[shunn.livejournal.com]

I don't see where I used the word stupid, but yes, obviously throwing eggs at ConEd workers is wrong and unhelpful. The situation is almost certainly not the fault of the workers; it's the result of poor planning and bad decisions much higher up.

But what should I be doing besides staying out of the way of the workers, which I am already? How do I support and cooperate?