About 1.5 Million Still Without Power In New York Metro Area
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A total of about 1.5 million power customers in the Tri-State area remained without power Sunday night, as relief and recovery efforts from Superstorm Sandy continued.
As of 10 p.m. Sunday night, a total of 1,509,317 customers were without power. A customer is defined as a business or a residence, meaning the total number of people without power was much higher.
A total of 178,831 Con Edison customers were affected Sunday night – breaking down to 11,610 in the Bronx, 22,634 in Brooklyn, 4,859 in Manhattan, 45,153 in Queens, 16,375 in Staten Island, and 77,830 in Westchester County.
The Long Island Power Authority reported 281,913 customers affected. Jersey Central Power & Light reported 410,375 customers, Public Service Electric and Gas Company in New Jersey reported 493,000, New York State Electric and Gas Corporation reported 21,694, Orange and Rockland Utilities reported 96,933, and Connecticut Light and Power reported 26,631.
Orange & Rockland actually reported a jump of about 13,000 customers without power within a few hours Sunday night.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday afternoon that his office was working hard to ensure that power would be restored to all in as timely a fashion as possible.
On Saturday, Christie released revised power restoration plans from the three major utility companies. PSE&G, JCPL and Atlantic City Electric have submitted restoration plans at the municipal level for the next two days in order to provide the best information possible to New Jersey homes and businesses.
While Christie said "substantial progress" had been made, he signed out Orange & Rockland for restoring only 60 percent of its customers since Sandy.
"I got a special call to (Orange & Rockland) this afternoon," Christie said. "Sixty-one percent is not acceptable."
And while power was back to the vast majority of customers in Lower Manhattan after an outage that lasted four days, Con Ed has urged customers who have had their power restored in the area to conserve energy.
Con Ed said customers should refrain from using nonessential appliances such as washers and dryers, and the utility has asked building owners to limit their use of elevator banks and other equipment.
The utility was in the process this weekend of reinforcing its underground system, and said customer cooperation should help ensure power does not go out anywhere again.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also warned Sunday that falling temperatures put more people at risk with power still out in many areas.
