OUTAGE AN OUTRAGE 10 day blackout cost millions now and more to come

What Con Edison officials originally dubbed as a small power outage in western Queens blew up in their faces as it turned into 10 days of escalating headaches and nightmares for the utility giant and area residents. Up to 100,000 people were plunged into darkness as businesses lost potentially millions of dollars in food and customers.
However, western Queens residents in parts of Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Hunters Point and Long Island City received some good news early Wednesday morning, July 26, as Con Ed officials said power had been fully restored to all its customers by an army of Con Ed crews who worked feverishly around the clock according to Con Ed spokesperson Alfonso Quiroz.
&#8220As service is being restored to residents in western Queens, residents will see 39 generators and miles of wires on the street,” Quiroz said on Tuesday afternoon maintaining that the equipment is completely safe and usually kept underground.
Even with power full-restored, residents are not completely out of the woods as occasional outages are still possible.
&#8220The neighborhood is starting to come out of it, and the people that have power back are elated,” said City Councilmember Eric Gioia. &#8220You also have people coming to terms about how much this has cost us and the loss is devastating.”
Currently more questions than answers remain about the cause and ultimate damages of the network blackout.
Sporadic outages began in the affected Queens neighborhoods on Monday, July 17, and Con Ed reported an initial number of 2,000 customers without power in the areas.
However, three days later that number ballooned to upwards of 25,000 customers without power in the area as Con Ed officials acknowledged that their original estimates only included those who called in by phone to report their power problems. To make matters worse, the 25,000 customers actually meant that more than 100,000 Queens residents were actually without power since estimates project one customer counting as four people.
&#8220We managed to survive the first four days with no help from anyone but ourselves,” Assemblyman Michael Gianaris told The Queens Courier. &#8220From that point forward, the city got involved. They were very good about providing services. We just wish it would have come sooner.”
Western Queens’ officials including Gianaris and Councilmembers Gioia and Peter Vallone Jr. have expressed their dissatisfaction and frustrations with the way Con Ed has handled the situation, going as far as to call for the resignation of its CEO, Kevin Burke.
&#8220The CEO presided over a major disaster. They then sat there and lied day after day about how many people were affected,” Gianaris said. &#8220In any other place else on earth, someone who is the head of the company and that happens, they would not have a job.”
Meanwhile some residents are blaming the city for the slow response to getting involved with the blackout.
&#8220It’s really enraging. There are so many elderly people in the area. We are not the condition of a storm; we are the condition of neglect,” said 30-year-old Astoria resident Antonio Ingenito. &#8220I’m disgusted with the way our city has abandoned us when we contribute so much to the city everyday.”
Under the direction of the Office of Emergency Management, Mayor Michael Bloomberg dispatched city officials from organizations including police, fire, transportation, sanitation, small business services, health and mental hygiene and many others in order to help residents survive the blackout when he became aware about the magnitude of the blackout.
Volunteers from the Red Cross and other organizations passed out food, water, ice and other essential supplies to residents beginning Friday and continuing daily to help alleviate the strain on residents.
However, Roseann Moncoda, 43, said things got so bad last Thursday night after being without power for three days that she took the subway into Manhattan and sat inside Barnes & Noble for hours in order to cool down.
&#8220I don’t know how I got up for work today with no alarm clock,” Moncoda said on Friday morning, saying she wished she could have slept in the school she works at in Long Island City that was not affected by the power outage.
Small business owners are also bearing a large portion of the burden as they have lost thousands of dollars in revenue and spoiled food they had to dispose of.
In order to help residents and businesses cope with the aftermath of the outage, Bloomberg announced on Wednesday, July 26, an agreement with Con Ed to relax requirements allowing residents to submit claims of up to $350 for spoiled food as well as medication that required refrigeration. In addition, businesses can submit claims for up to $7,000 in reimbursements with receipts.
Bloomberg also unveiled a $10,000 low-interest loan program that the Department of Small Business Services will facilitate designed to help businesses bounce back from the losses quickly.
Thus far, one Woodside family is blaming the blackout for the death of a 60-year-old Andres Rodriguez, who had a heart attack on Friday July 21, while driving his wife to work. The family contends that the death was related to the blackout, but medical exams have not shown this.
&#8220My father passed away because we had four days without electricity, he had diabetes, and he needed the air conditioning to sleep,” said Rodriguez’s son Andres Jr. &#8220They could say whatever they want, but we know. We’re his family.”
Although residents remain frustrated by not having their power for more than a week, the resolve of the community during adverse times has impressed local leaders.
&#8220The people have performed remarkably well; neighbors are helping neighbors,” said Congressman Joseph Crowley, who stayed on the streets until 11:30 p.m. Sunday night reaching out to residents. &#8220We haven’t heard of any spike in crime.”
With power fully restored to all customers in the area, both Con Ed and local leaders said they would begin to shift their attention.
&#8220We will have a thorough review of why all of this went wrong,” Quiroz said.
Councilmembers Gioia, Vallone Jr., and Leroy Comrie planned to begin holding hearings as early Monday, July 31, at City Hall with representatives from Con Ed in attendance.
&#8220It is a tragedy what they [Con Ed] have done to Queens,” Gioia said. &#8220It was us today, but it could be anyone tomorrow, and we have to make sure this never happens again.”