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Residents,
While progress continues to be made in reconnecting Hastings residents to the electrical grid, the process remains painfully slow for those still not repowered. Con Edison today was here in substantially smaller numbers than yesterday but did manage to bring the remaining half of Shadowlawn back on line in the later afternoon. All streets have been cleared, but pockets of outages still dot the village, including a large number in the Southgate/Fairlane/Glenn Place section. There, over 60 homes are still out and addressing that outage is likely to take at least a day and probably more as the lines have been severed in several places by the largest concentrated number of tree falls in Hastings outside of Broadway. Con Edison is indicating some 400 homes were dark in early afternoon - after the Shadowlawn
repowering, the number has likely dropped below 300. We still feel this may be a high number, but that is what is provided by Con Edison. Their efforts are not terribly well coordinated and they are being tugged in multiple directions by increasingly frantic communities tired of being out. It's not a pretty process, and we are doing our best to attract their attention and help to locally prioritize their efforts.
Some 20 homes were damaged by tree and branch falls and over a dozen cars were struck as well. It really is a small miracle that no one was injured. The police and building inspector are attempting to build an inventory of the damage as part of the process of the County applying for Federal disaster relief. This time around, the damage is substantially higher than what seemed to be a cataclysmal bad snow storm three weeks ago and, unlike that time, the County's application may yield results.
The sheer quantity of downed branches and trees will take literally months to fully clear. If the tree belongs to you and fell on your property, you will have to pay to have it removed, Smaller branches can be broken up and brought to the curbside, but expect weeks before the tons of material is fully carted away. Yonkers, where we used to bring tree debris, has shut its facility to outsiders (they have plenty locally generated), so the task of disposal is compounded for us. It will, in the end, be literally hundreds of loads of debris hauled before we are done. The storms also had a deleterious effect on the streets, where potholes seem larger than ever. In short, we're going to look like a mess for a while, so do what you can to at least keep litter off the streets and the piles of debris relatively in order.
Residents have been hugely patient with the chaos, even those now entering their fifth day of darkness. As frustrating as it may be, some homes may not be restored until Friday or Saturday. We will continue to work on your behalf to try to expedite things. The police and firemen will be going door to door in the hard-hit Southgate neighborhood tomorrow afternoon, checking up on people. Welcome them warmly - they're doing the best they can. If you have had it with cold showers and dark nights, Andrus does have a few open rooms they have made available. Make that known to the police and they will see what they can arrange.
We ask for your continued forbearance and thank you for your good graces to one another,
Peter Swiderski
Mayor
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