57,000 Queens households lost power during Tuesday's tropical storm
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A tree fell across wires in Queens Village, knocking out power and upending a chunk of sidewalk. Photo by Teresa Mettela
By David Brand and Teresa Mettela
More than 46,000 Queens households were without power Wednesday afternoon, 24 hours after an intense tropical storm tore through the borough.
The electricity went out in roughly 57,000 borough residences at some point during the heavy winds and rain, according to Con Edison, complicating life for people stuck at home as a result of COVID-19.
The whipping winds of Tropical Storm Isaias ripped down trees across Queens, causing significant damage to homes and cars and killing at least one man in Briarwood who was sitting in his van when a tree fell on top of the vehicle.
Queens residents who work or take classes remotely said the outages have paralyzed their ability to stay connected.
“My fellowship recently shifted to an online platform due to COVID, but now with the power outage, there’s no way for me to connect with my co-workers.” said Sahiti Kovvuri, a Baruch College student who lives in Queens Village.
Program organizers were understanding and agreed to giver her time off until power returned, Kovvuri said.
The storm had a particular impact in Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Whitestone, Middle Village and Flushing, where many residents remained without power Wednesday afternoon, according to Con Edison. Winds as high as 71 miles per hour in New York City forced the MTA to temporarily suspend outdoor train service.
Outages also affected events elsewhere in the borough. New York City’s Housing Preservation and Development postponed a town hall on storm resiliency in Edgemere.
Overall, 292,000 Con Edison customers lost power in New York City and Westchester County, surpassing the impact of Hurricane Irene, which knocked out power for 204,000 households in 2011. Hurricane Sandy cut the lights for 1.1 million customers in 2012.
Con Edison workers laboring around-the-clock restored power to about 90,000 households within 24 hours, the utility reported.
Much of the work requires untangling wires from fallen trees that littered streets around the borough. Rain on Monday softened the soil ahead of the storm, making the trees more susceptible to toppling in the high winds.
“Restoration will require clearing nearly 500 roads that are blocked by fallen trees. Con Edison must de-energize any wires entangled in those trees, untangle the wires and then work with municipal public works crews to remove the trees,” Con Edison said in a statement.
“Crews give priority to making repairs that will provide power to the most customers quickly, then restore smaller groups and individual customers.”
More than 7,000 wires were down across the city Wednesday. Con Edison urged residents to avoid downed wires and to report them to the utility and to the NYPD.
