Message from the Mayor: Storms Update 9-March-2018
Posted on: March 9, 2018 - 3:11pm
Fellow residents,
Con Ed has been here in force yesterday and today, and our outage count has dropped by two-thirds to under 100. We seem to be heading toward the tail end of this effort, where the smaller pockets of outages begin to draw the required attention.
Storm Update
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The Country has reversed much of the damage taken from Storm Quinn (must we name every snow fall?), dropping from over 30,000 out to around 14,000 still in the dark. Here in Hastings, we are at 82 out at 2:00pm (compared to 280 yesterday), with homes coming online in batches throughout the day. The stretch of south Broadway was lit most recently today. Remaining outages includes a large cluster the length of much of Warburton with most of those still dark, a smaller cluster on the eastern end of High Street, and small clusters in the Buena Vista/Summit Drive, a handful on Flower, Kent, and single outages elsewhere. Con Ed has trucks on High Street today to finish up there. If you are currently lit and near any of these aforementioned locations, do not be alarmed if you suffer an outage. It will likely be for 30-40 minutes: this occurs when Con Ed kills power locally just prior to reconnecting. It means neighbors are being resuscitated.
As for the remaining outages – I can’t offer anything certain. We advise you to make sure you have called in your outage if a truck is not on your block: 1-800-752-6633. There is no point in relaying Con Ed claims here on restoration: they will fix it when they fix it, and when you lost power or your location are not predictive of much. Please note that if a downed branch pulled the line that runs from the utility pole to your house down (the “service wire”), it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to fix this. Con Ed doesn’t cover that. You should call an electrician and have them reattach it. I continue to recommend acute skepticism if a robo-call tells you your home is fixed or will be in a designated number of hours. If you are out of town, friends and neighbors in the vicinity are the most reliable source. The map available on the Con Ed site here https://apps.coned.com/stormcenter/external/default.html is also pretty good in indicating that you are now fixed: if you aren’t on the map and you were before, you should be lit. (If you were never on the map, you should have logged the outage a while ago: www.coned.com or the number above.) Being in the last few houses dark is one of the lonelier places to be. Our house was dark till the very end after Sandy, 13 days in, and that was just miserable. Everyone else had moved on back to normalcy, and there you are. Not fun. Neither Con Ed nor the Village will forget about you – so bear through it. Not that there is much choice.
What you need to know:
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* Some downed wires may still be “hot”. No need to find out the hard way. Do not approach them and make sure your dog is on a short leash. Live wires will kill instantly.
* Leave all your faucets dripping during the period that you are unheated so your pipes do not burst. If you need shelter, the Andrus Home is generously offering a limited number of rooms. Please contact the Police Department if you need shelter (914-478-2344).
* The Community Center is still open as a warming/Wi-Fi/charging center until 7PM.
* Don’t call the Police Department for updates: they have no new information. Call only if it is a true emergency. I will put out a daily bulletin to keep you informed until the very last home is restored. It will be posted on the Community Center front door, Village Hall and Library front door during the duration of this period.
Coyote Update
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There have been no further coyote attacks. We are likely to keep the parks closed for the next eight days and continue to trap in Hillside, Quarry and Uniontown. Do not go in the woods until the Village reopens the parks or let your dogs or cats out or off the leash during this duration. You put your pets at lethal risk if you do so and the Village cannot be held responsible. No coyotes were snared this sixth day of the trapping effort. Vigilance remains the order of the day for the next couple of weeks. Keep your eyes open and report anything amiss with our local wildlife (after you have gotten to safety) to the police (914-478-2344).
This marks two days in a row of no new crisis. Let’s see how long that lasts.
Sincerely,
Peter Swiderski
Mayor