#Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers still without power after Isaias

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A Con Edison crew works on power lines in Elmhurst, Queens, today.
James Messerschmidt

Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were still without power Thursday after Tropical Storm Isaias unleashed its wrath this week — and some may not get the juice back until Sunday.

About 549,000 residents statewide remained powerless as a result of the Tuesday afternoon storm, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters during a conference call Thursday as he bashed the state’s utility companies for the lack of service.

“We don’t contract for sunny-day service. We contract for every-day service,” Cuomo said, adding that the state has roughly 7,000 workers out assisting with storm-related recovery and power issues.

The storm downed thousands of trees and caused roughly 300,000 outages in New York City and Westchester County, according to Con Edison, the main power provider in those areas.

By Thursday morning, crews with the utility company had restored power to more than 160,000 customers, but those still without power may have to wait days more to get the lights back on.

Con Edison crews “plan to finish restoring power to the vast majority of the approximately 300,000 customers who lost service during the storm by Sunday night,” the company said in statement Thursday.

Isaias’ fierce winds and rain brought down thousands of branches and trees in the city and Westchester, 78 poles and other pieces of equipment and caused over 580 road closures, according to the company.

“This storm’s impact to the tri-state area was historic,” Matthew Ketschke, Con Edison senior vice president of customer energy solutions, said Thursday. “We are making significant progress as we work around the clock to restore power. New Yorkers are depending on us.”

As of Thursday morning, 83,000 customers in Westchester remained without power, 36,000 in Queens, 4,400 in Brooklyn, 13,000 on Staten Island and 19,800 in The Bronx.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking during his daily City Hall press briefing Thursday, said the storm knocked out the power for 180,000 New York City residents and thousands of them were “suffering” because they remained in the dark.

Hizzoner said it was “distressing” for those without power to learn from Con Edison that they may not get it back until Sunday.

“Who wants to wait that long? Why should you have to wait that long,” de Blasio said, explaining that he has been pushing Con Edison to restore the power.

The mayor said Con Edison projects that it will restore the power for between 15,000 and 20,000 customers in the Big Apple Thursday and the same amount again Friday.

“So what I’m pushing for is more than half of the outstanding households will be resolved by tomorrow,” de Blasio said, adding, “We’re going to keep pushing because we just can’t have people wait that long — it’s not fair.”