Rockland County, NY – As Monsey area residents continue to shiver in their homes four days after Hurricane Sandy, officials at Orange and Rockland insist they are making progress.
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According to Maria Pollard, a Media Representative at Orange and Rockland 230,000 of the utility’s 300,000 customers lost power during Monday night’s storm.
“I have worked here for twelve years and I have seen my share of storms, but this is the absolute worst I have ever seen in terms of damage and the sheer number of customers affected,” Pollard told VIN News. “Approximately 80% of our customers lost their electricity and 80% of our system has been destroyed.”
According to Pollard, Orange and Rockland was extremely well prepared for the hurricane and that currently crews from as far away as Oklahoma and California are working furiously to restore power to customers. Still, Pollard admits that the utility’s initial estimate of a ten day restoration time for many customers was an accurate one.
“This storm was more complex than most,” explained Pollard. “A lot of our transmission wires and substations suffered damage and our first priority has been to make those repairs. Once that process is complete, we can get distribution going on the actual lines and restore power to our customers.”
Pollard said that priority is given to the repairs that will affect the largest number of households and that most should be back online by November 10th.
“Our online outage map has been a little spotty,” admits Pollard. “But there is no restoration estimate listed yet for each outage because we are just not at the point yet where we can give accurate times for each neighborhood and every street.”
Pollard, who herself has no electricity in her home, said that the utility appreciated customer’s patience and that Orange and Rockland recognizes how difficult this situation is for all those who were affected by the storm.
“It is amazing the devastation that can be caused by a tree branch,” said Pollard. “We know that people rely on our service so very, very much and we are doing our best to get everyone’s lights back on.”
Hopefully, by next shabbos, everyone will be back on line. The weather is supposed to be good through the middle of next week so it won’t be such a big problem but there is a storm forecast for later next week which might make life somewhat more difficult for those still without power. In the interim, people need to understand that it will take ConEd (which owns Orange and Rockland) time to complete critical repairs in Manhattan, which before they will send additional resources to Monsey.
What she doesn’t say is that 1800 worker has been sent to work in NYC! We pay them all year round, now when its all messed up 1800 workers are sent to the city! Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the utility companies around NYC say the same thing “we are working first on the damages that would put the most people back online. But the facts are, that’s not exactly true. The areas they repair first, are the “problem neighborhoods” the ones that would turn violent if left without their habits. And that’s simply not fair. When NYC’s electric goes down, Harlem & Bronx get repaired first, followed by Manhattan and then other Boros. Sure there’s a reason, but why lie about it? Why mislead everyone? Does a large apartment building full of non-tax payers go before the tax-payers that pay for those apartment buildings? Think about it! And that’s where the “entitlement mentality” comes from.
I suggest the Governor send a Professional investigator to see all the activities of the workers and publicize the way how the work is done