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“Con Ed is being a tad too slow for my liking on identifying when we can help ourselves,” Spano said Thursday afternoon in an afternoon press briefing inside the Office of Emergency Management.
Nearly 48 hours after Hurricane Sandy swept through Yonkers, more than 400 downed trees remained throughout the city. Spano said his office had 14 crews on standby, ready and able to clean up the streets.
But with many trees wrapped around live electrical wires, city crews could not begin the cleanup without the help of Con Edison.
“We have to get trees off our power lines,” Spano said. “We can’t do that until Con Ed gets here.”
Con Edison officials were not immediately available for comment but earlier this work told The Daily Voice the power company was working as quickly as it could as it dealt with more than 800,000 power outages across the region.
"With all of the outages, we will do our best to work as quickly as possible to restore power as long as those repairs can be made safely,” Allan Drury, a Con Edison spokesman said Monday.
Still, city officials said there are "not even close to enough" Con Ed crews in Yonkers to help get trees off the streets while at the same time restoring power to more than 21,000 city residents still in the dark.
The time frame for the expected restoration of power remains unknown but city officials warned residents it could be as long as next week before the lights come on in some neighborhoods.
“They’ve only given us a few teams,” said Thomas Meier, Department of Public Works commissioner. “We need more teams down here.”
Even Superintendent of Schools Bernard Pierorazio called on Con Ed to send more crews to the city. Pierorazio said the district was forced to cancel school for Thursday, the fourth consecutive day of no classes, because trees were still blocking city streets and 10 school buildings were still without power.
“Con Ed crews do not seem to be at full force,” he said.
Meanwhile, city crews continued pumping water out of the basement at the Yonkers Riverfront Library and Board of Education building at 1 Larkin Center Thursday after it was flooded during a storm surge.
Pierorazio estimated the building sustained as much as $2 million in damages, including the school district’s telephone and communication system.
The superintendent said he is holding out hope power will be restored shortly and children will be able to return to school this week.
“We are hopeful they can be back in school Friday but that remains to be seen,” Pierorazio said.
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