The Final Four (Percent) – 250 Rye Customers Still in Darkness

We are down to the final four.

Four percent of Rye, or 250 Con Ed customers, remained without power on Sunday evening. In an update Sunday evening to citizens, Rye Mayor Josh Cohn said the last 24 hours showed “massive improvement” with line crews coming in from out of state to help the situation here in Rye.

“Trouble spots remain in Greenhaven, in the Brevoort – Lake area, and between Apawamis and Intervale, off Milton,” Cohn said in his missive. “Con Ed assures us that all of Greenhaven will have electricity tonight, barring a small number of houses that may need to wait for the arrival of a replacement transformer. The problem near Apawamis may require Con Ed to shut down some slightly broader area in order to complete that work safely.”

Read the full update:

“We have seen massive improvement over the past 24 hours. Line crews from Iowa, Indiana and various contractors have been at work stitching us back into the power grid. Remaining trouble spots remain in Greenhaven, in the Brevoort – Lake area, and between Apawamis and Intervale, off Milton. Con Ed assures us that all of Greenhaven will have electricity tonight, barring a small number of houses that may need to wait for the arrival of a replacement transformer. The problem near Apawamis may require Con Ed to shut down some slightly broader area in order to complete that work safely. We will ask that Con Ed give notice to those affected.

For the most part, today has been a day of big trucks and big crews doing large-scale restoration work. There will be individual homes and small groups of homes that will need additional attention from what Con Ed calls service crews. If you find that your home or business remains without power when your neighbors have power, please report your outage (again!) to Con Ed. Con Ed will not help you unless you have a current outage report in their system. You may also send your information to me, [email protected], so that we can help prompt Con Ed to do what needs to be done.

This is day 5 after Isaias and it has been a tough row for many of us. Although there is very much to be disappointed in in Con Ed’s performance, Rye has had a somewhat faster recovery than many of its neighboring municipalities. That would not be the case without the exemplary work of our Department of Public Works, our Fire Department and our Police Department, collectively under the leadership of Interim City Manager Greg Usry. We, as a City, were able to clear a path for Con Ed to do its work and to provide whatever assistance Con Ed needed. We gave Con Ed no excuses.

Con Ed has provided new instructions for seeking reimbursement for food, medications and perishable commercial merchandise. Please go here.

Con Ed’s instructions for registering (for future use) a residence housing electrically-supported life support equipment may be found here.

As for Con Ed, as noted previously, I participated in a State and County investigative effort following the March 2018 storms. That effort led to a report and recommendations that were intended to assure that Con Ed’s 2018 storm failure would not be repeated. It seems that either those recommendations were not implemented or still greater measures must be taken to make sure that Westchester (and other counties’) residents are appropriately protected by the monopoly that serves them. Please ask the Governor and your State legislators to make sure that we won’t be obliged to do this again.

I hope all of us can enjoy homes with electricity tonight.

Mayor Josh Cohn”