Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

After a spate of days of cool, dry, September sunshine, Westchester was hit with a scary storm on Tuesday evening. High winds and strong downpours had everyone fearing the worst. During one strong gust we heard a crack and something hit the roof. We peered outside into the darkness and eventually made out a big branch in the yard – but the branch had fallen in an open spot and the damage appeared to be minimal.

Our friends on Greenacres Avenue were not so fortunate. At 6:30 pm on Tuesday a large tree fell at the corner of Kingston and Greenacres Avenue and knocked out the power for a section of homes on the northern border of Greenacres. They spent their evening in the dark but their power was restored about four hours later and we all went to sleep thinking the worst was over.

Wednesday dawned cooler but bright and I hunkered down on the computer to make up for lost time. I was making good

Downed Tree Closed Greenacres Avenue

Not so bad I thought – I assumed the outage would only last a few minutes while Con Edison made a quick fix. Quickly rearranging my day I decided to go out and shoot some photos. As I prepared to leave the house I glanced out the garage door – which was closed. Ugh! We have an automatic door and my husband said we had misplaced the key. With no electricity and without any other access to the garage, the cars were locked inside.

My options for the day were dwindling and by now an hour had passed with no sign of the power. I decided to take a walk to see if I could figure anything out – and after stopping a few joggers I found out that Con Edison was at work at Walworth and Fenimore Roads. I asked one of the men in the truck when the power would be restored and he was vague – mumbling something about later tonight. He also revealed that Con Edison had turned off the power for a portion of Greenacres and Fox Meadown in order to make a repair caused by a downed tree at Fenimore and Brite Avenue. The stoplights were out too – and police were stationed at every corner directing the snarled traffic to a detour as Fenimore Road was closed.

What happened to Con Edison’s robo-calls and the Village emergency system? I’ll never know as my phone line was out as well. I contacted both the police and the village and both said that the storm had affected very few customers. From what I saw, I was among more than a few who were inconvenienced. The power finally returned at 6:30 pm – an eight-hour outage without a word from the authorities. Hmmmmm.

In response to my inquiries I received this email from the Village this morning:

Because the storm did not cause a great deal of damages or outages, Con Edison did not assign a liaison to the Village to update us on the status of local power outages. Nevertheless, the Village was in contact with Con Ed and as of last night all of the power outages restored with the exception of a section of Greenacres, which is estimated to be restored by 11AM today. The best way to track where power outages are and estimated times for restoration is Con Edison’s website .