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Storms and flooding compound the power outages in southeast Queens

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Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS

After torrential rain and flash flooding swept the city Monday night, the weather compounded power outages across southeast Queens where hundreds were already suffering from outages in Kew Gardens as a result of the heat wave.

Con Edison reported that 13,000 customers citywide lost power as a result of the storm. The mayor’s office tweeted around 11 p.m. that 8,000 had lost power in Queens — the vast majority of them in the neighborhoods around Jamaica.

On Monday afternoon Patch reported that 700 people in apartment buildings along 118th Street, Metropolitan Avenue and Curzon Road in Kew Gardens had been without power since Sunday as a result of the heat wave.

While a spokesperson for Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s office said most of the 118th Street area seemed to have gained power Tuesday morning, Con Edison’s outage map showed that there were still around 559 residents across Kew Gardens who were without it. 

Residents of 118th Street in Kew Gardens said that the power was restored in the morning but it went out again shortly after. One resident named Rueben said he was worried for his mother in hospice care who depended on oxygen pump. 

Con Edison also reported that they had reduced the total number of customers without power in Queens to 1,200, but they could not differentiate how many of them were due to the storms versus the heat outages. 

The spokesperson added that the remaining Kew Gardens residents should expect to get power by Tuesday evening.

Koslowitz issued a statement saying that when she became aware of the power outages, her office did not receive an assurance from Con Edison that power would be restored momentarily. After learning that some buildings in the area were dependent on electricity to power their water systems, she called the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Environmental Protection, which brought bottles of water to the area and set up temporary water faucets for the residents.

“I agree with the Mayor that an investigation needs to occur. With a thorough understanding of what went wrong to cause these power outages, we can then proceed to address and correct the problem,” Koslowitz said.

The mayor tweeted out Monday night that the NYPD established a command post with additional officers and light towers and the Red Cross had established a shelter at P.S. 268 at 92-07 175 St.

He added that the South Jamaica Houses were without power. On Tuesday morning an office manager for the houses said that residents had stopped calling about the outages, indicating that the power had resumed. 

Mark Hallum contributed reporting to the story.