Thousands Still Without Power; Brooklyn, Queens Hardest Hit; Con Ed Distributing Dry Ice

Con Edison crews pressed on today through the third day of the heat wave, restoring approximately 58,200 customers out of 68,000 who had lost electric service since Thursday. As of 5 p.m. today, crews were working to restore approximately 9,800 customers (each customer = one meter, which could be a house or an entire apartment building) without power.

Roughly 2,500 Brooklyn customers were without power at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 5,800 Queens customers were out.

The company also posted a new peak electric usage record for a Saturday. Today’s peak reached 11,533 megawatts (MW) at 3 p.m., breaking the previous weekend-high mark 11,209 MW set on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 5 p.m.

While Con Edison crews work to restore electrical power to those affected by scattered outages during the third day of the heat wave, the company is distributing dry ice to customers from two locations in Brooklyn and Queens.

Bags of ice are being distributed at:

Sheepshead Bay High School, at 3000 Avenue X in Brooklyn and,
Richmond Hill High School, at 89-30 114th Street in Queens.

Customer Service vans will be staffed at these locations tonight until 9 p.m., and tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., unless the emergency is scaled down earlier.

For residents picking up dry ice, instructions for safe handling and disposal are printed on the paper bag containing the ice. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide and should be used only in well-ventilated areas. Keep children and pets safely away.

Photo by MK Metz

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