While most of the media only focuses on how many have lost their power after two back-to-back severe weather events, and by the way one more possible event on it’s way, no one seems to realize that the combined devastation faced in the Northeast of the United States is very similar to that of Super Storm Sandy as far damage to the electric distribution system. These events have affected areas that have rarely seen power outages, such as in particular “good” areas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
In New York there were no exceptions, as many trees toppled over knocking out power lines, destroying public and private property, while creating depressive and dangerous access conditions for commuters, communities and certainly many utility line workers. Publicly, without mentioning names, there were power companies that made the decision to wait until weather conditions settled before sending out restoration crews. This was a major contrast to New York’s power company, Con Edison and it’s subsidiary O&R Utilities who immediately mobilized an army of 1,700 boots on the ground to begin restoration of the electric grid. To place these numbers into perspective, that is a similar deployment to that of Hurricane Irene.
The chairman and CEO of Con Edison, John McAvoy, said in a news conference, “We won’t stop working 24/7 until the last customer is restored”. There’s no doubt that this company means it and that they show loyalty and commitment to its customers and communities.
To give readers a bit more of a perspective of the goliath efforts that are taking place, Orange and Rockland counties in New York have seen nearly 140,000 customers who lost power and around 127,000 of those customers have seen their power restored within a week and many in much less time.
So, when it comes to natural disasters or Mother Nature simply wants to give humanity a reality check, it seems that New York has the resilience to bounce back in records times. To be fair this is thanks to the combined efforts of many municipalities, high way authority for clearing roadways, state and local emergency responders and of course let’s not forget those people running around in bucket trucks and utility vehicles.
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