Con Edison Crews Mobilizing For Tonight’s Rain and Wind Storm

Con Edison is activating hundreds of contractor workers to augment company crews to restore any outages caused by the rain and windstorm expected to hit the region Tuesday evening.

The company urges members of the public to stay safe. Stay away from downed wires. They may be live.

Con Edison has secured 705 outside workers to assist in addressing power outages and other service problems.

The strong winds can cause trees and branches to fall onto power lines and bring those lines down, causing customers to lose service and creating a safety hazard.

In addition, the rain can carry road salt into manholes. The salty water makes contact with underground electric delivery cables, possibly causing service problems for customers served by the underground system.

The rain may also cause coastal flooding. In the event of major flooding, the company would have to wait for flood waters to recede before workers enter some facilities to assess damage.

To ensure public safety, Con Edison may guard downed wires until crews make repairs. Company personnel may be in unmarked cars but will always have Con Edison identification.

Restoration Plan

The priority for restoration will be critical customer facilities that have an impact on the public, such as mass transit, hospitals, police and fire stations, and sewage and water-pumping stations.

Crews will then prioritize repairs that will provide power to the largest numbers of customers as quickly as possible, then move on to restore smaller groups and individual customers.