Con Ed: Expect More Outages with Nor'easter

High winds, rain, and possibly even some wet snow, could once again force power outages in Ossining, Croton-on-Hudson and the rest of Westchester County this week.

On a call with the media this evening, Con Edison Senior Vice President of Electric Operations John Miksad said the oncoming storm may not only cause further damage to power lines in the area, but also delay current restoration efforts.

"We've got another Nor'easter coming toward us tomorrow afternoon and evening into Thurday morning," he said.

The storm could bring sustained winds of approximately 25-30 mph and gusts of up to 40 to 50 mph, along with a combination of rain and wet snow.

In Westchester, residents could see "up to three inches of wet snow," Miksad said.

In the eight days since Hurricane Sandy struck the region, Con Edison has restored 884,000 Westchester County and New York City customers, Miksad said.

"We've got trees...limbs that are dangling," he stated. "Winds will knock them down into our overhead system causing additional outages; perhaps outages to things we've already restored."

Overall, "There are still 107,000 customers left to restore," Miksad said, including approximately 46,000 in Westchester.

He said Con Edison will not be pre-emptively shutting down any of its networks in anticipation of the storm and all Sandy-related restorations are still expected to be completed by the end of the weekend—not including those involving damaged equipment.

"If the winds, rains and gusts [end up being] like what we are talking about, that will certainly tend to slow down the troops," Miksad said. "Mother Nature is not cooperating."