Con Edison Crews Mobilizing For Tuesday Snow and Wind Storm

Con Edison is activating 250 mutual aid workers to augment company crews in restoring any outages Storm Lorraine may cause with its forecasted heavy, wet snow and strong winds.

The crews are scheduled to arrive tonight, in time for the start of rain, which will change to snow in some parts of Con Edison’s service area.

The snow and 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.

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

In addition, the melting snow 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.

How to Report an Outage

Customers can sign up for text alerts at coned.com/text. Customers can also report outages and check service restoration status at conEd.com/reportoutage, with Con Edison’s mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or by calling 1-800-752-6633.

Customers who report outages will receive updates from Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available. Information on outages and restoration times is also available at the Con Edison outage map.

Text messages and e-mails will be sent to customers in areas forecasted to be hardest hit by this storm.