Cuomo Directs Review Of Power Failures From March 2-3 Nor'easter

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo directed the New York State Department of Public Service Tuesday to conduct a full review into power failures after the March 2-3 nor'easter. Four days after the storm, while power has been restored to more than 280,000 New Yorkers, 74,790 customers remain without power — 93 percent of whom are located in Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan and Westchester counties.

Given the prolonged nature of the outages and clear breakdowns in communication between utilities and customers, the Department of Public Service will review the utility preparations and response to this storm, specifically targeting those utilities that serve Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester and Sullivan counties. They are served by Central Hudson, NYSEG and Con Edison.

"The widespread power failures after Winter Storm Riley are dangerous and completely unacceptable, and we will hold these utilities accountable for their failure to quickly restore power to New Yorkers," Cuomo said, referring to the storm by the name given it by the Weather Channel. "I am directing the Department of Public Service to conduct a full review into these outages and ongoing utility power infrastructure issues."

Utilities must follow their utility response plans and failure to do so can result in financial penalties to shareholders, the governor's office said. Recognizing this was a severe weather event that caused extensive damage to utility infrastructure, there remain several areas of concern including thousands of customers still out, hundreds of impassable roads and poor communication to customers. The utilities have not met the state's expectations and a full-scale review will examine operational failures throughout the restoration process.

Photo caption: Crews working in Mahopac, NY March 3, 2018. Photo credit: Lanning Taliaferro/Patch Staff.