Isaias Aftermath: Hundreds of thousands still without power across NY area – WABC-TV
Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a State of Emergency for downstate New York on Wednesday to enable the state to provide additional levels to support to local governments throughout the clean-up and recovery process.
Nearly 2.5 million people lost power in the region. Con Edison said the number of power outages from Isaias was the second-largest in the company’s history. Only Superstorm Sandy in 2012 caused more.
The emergency order covers the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
At least one person was killed in the area as the tropical storm hit the region.
NEW YORK CITY
A 60-year-old man was killed when he was crushed by a tree that fell on his car in Briarwood, Queens.
There were more than 3,100 reports of downed trees in Queens, many of which knocked out power and damaged homes. One crashed through the roof of a home and fell on a child’s bedroom. She was just a few feet away and wasn’t hurt.
In Brooklyn, a woman was struck in the head by a falling tree branch outside the Tilden Houses in Brownsville just after 2 p.m. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition.
There was also a partial building collapse involving the second and third floors of a building at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and North 6th Street.
An unknown number of residents were evacuated. There were no reports of injuries.
Cuomo blamed the power companies for failing to prepare adequately for the storm and its aftermath, and he is vowing an investigation.
ConEd said 260,000 customers were left without power after the storm throughout New York City and Westchester County. The company said half were restored by Thursday morning and the rest will be by Sunday night at the latest.
Mayor de Blasio said, “We’re going to keep on pushing,” at the news that they were halfway restored in the city. He said each day some 15,000-20,000 customers would be restored. 70,000 remained without power on Thursday.
The company urged residents to stay away from downed wires and to not assume they are de-energized.
Lower Manhattan was spared from major flooding from Isaias:
In the East Village, part of an exterior building was caught on camera falling to the ground. There were no reports of any injuries associated with the incident.
Citizen App video shows a raging transformer fire in the Richmond Valley section of Staten Island.
The storm caused the MTA to run underground subways only. No outdoor subways ran during that time and outdoor subway stations were closed.
Metro-North service on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Lines was suspended at one point due to high winds and hazardous conditions caused by Isaias. On Thursday, Metro-North was running weekend service on Harlem Line from Pleasantville to Grand Central Terminal with no service from Chappaqua to Wassaic. It is also running weekend service on the Hudson Line and New Haven Line, with no service between Stamford and New Haven. It is suspended on the Danbury Branch due to extensive damage to the infrastructure.
RELATED: Isaias’ path of destruction
LONG ISLAND
Isaias caused widespread damage and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands across Long Island who remained without service on Thursday.
The storm sliced a path of wreckage through thousands of trees which toppled one after another onto cars, into houses and onto a tangle of power lines.
PSEG said Isaias was one of the strongest storms to reach the service area in years. Strong winds and hazardous gusts downed trees, branches, and wires and impacted more than 368,000 of 1.1 million customers across Long Island and the Rockaways.
PSEG Long Island President Daniel Eichhorn fought back against claims that PSEG was not prepared for the large tropical storm.
“Something that we expected and something that we think we planned well for,” he said on Wednesday.
Eichhorn said less than 24 hours after the storm 57 percent of customers had their power restored.
Approximately 140,000 customers remained without power as of 10 a.m. on Thursday. Power to all Long Island customers should be restored by Saturday, he said.
The LIRR was back up and running Thursday with all service restored.
HUDSON VALLEY
Dozens of National Guard troops have been sent to Putnam County to help in the cleanup and to provide assistance to residents. They are meeting at the Paladin Center in Carmel and will hand out supplies to those in need or deliver them to residents stuck in their homes.
Isaias brought periods of torrential rain in Rockland County, but it was the wind that caused the most damage there too, uprooting small trees and snapping branches on big ones.
NEW JERSEY
A 60-year-old man is dead after a possible electrocution in New Jersey.
Police say the man may have been doing yard work and come in contact with downed wires from storm damage due to Isaias.
Heavy rains and confirmed tornadoes were reported across New Jersey, where a state of emergency was in effect.
The state’s utilities reported more than one million homes and businesses without electricity, and crews continue work to restore full service.
For Thursday, NJ Transit Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, Gladstone Branch, and North Jersey Coast Line service remains suspended as crews are working around the clock to clear trees, repair signal systems, and restore overhead wires, which power the trains. Northeast Corridor, Raritan Valley Line, Main/Bergen County, Port Jervis, and Pascack Valley Lines are operating on a weekend schedule.
CONNECTICUT
There is growing anger and frustration in Connecticut where utility companies have hardly put a dent in the number of widespread outages in that state.
As of Thursday evening, there were more than 590,000 customers without electricity and the state’s main utility Eversourcehas not been able to provide an update when homes and businesses will get their power back.
local officials called the company’s response to Isaias an epic failure and the state is now investigating Eversource’s response to the storm.
Governor Ned Lamont deployed the National Guard to help remove debris that is still blocking streets.
“We’re going to be riding hard to make sure we get this done. I can tell you that Eversource maybe only had 450 line crews a few days ago. they’ll have over 1,100 within the next 24 hours. And I really want to see more progress,” Lamont said.
Lamont said two people died in the state and five others suffered serious injuries in the storm.
Nearly the entire town of Westport was without power after felled trees knocked down power lines, and at one point, crews were dealing with more than 200 incidents of blocked roads due to downed trees.
“With more than 700,000 customers experiencing power outages, we need to take several emergency steps that will facilitate restoration,” Lamont said. “I remain in consistent communication with municipal leaders and utility officials so that we can move resources to where they are most needed at this time. I continue to have regular communications with our Emergency Operations Center, which is managing both the response to this storm and our continued response to COVID-19.”
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