Tens Of Thousands Without Power After Deadly Nor'easter Pummels Tri-State Area
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A massive cleanup effort was underway Saturday across the Tri-State Area, following a deadly and destructive Nor'easter.
The powerful storm flooded streets, took down trees and was blamed for at least eight deaths in the northeastern United States, including an 11-year-old boy in Putnam County.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said more than 700 trees came down in New York City alone.
In Ridgewood, New Jersey, one fell onto a woman walking her dog, pinning her underneath.
Meanwhile, downed power lines shut down streets, as crews worked to clear the wires and restore service.
"We heard a big bang," Queens resident Sheik Nabijhon told CBS2's Dave Carlin.
The sound of splitting wood, snapping lines and popping tires propelled him outside his Springfield Gardens home on Nashville Boulevard near 197th Street. He was shocked to see the damage from a fallen tree, and then shocked again by how slowly power was being restored.
"They're telling me that they would be here at 12-o-clock last night, and they didn't show up. Nobody showed up yet from Con Edison," Nabijhon said. "I called the city 311. Well with the city, they're telling you to go online, they're not answering any phone calls."
Con Edison confirmed tens of thousands of customers lost power across New York City and in Westchester County.
Northern communities, like Larchmont, were hit the hardest, according to Con Ed.
"Job after job, nonstop," Town of Mamaroneck arborist Estaban Nava told Carlin.
He said he didn't sleep a wink, tagging along with Con Ed crews who make sure live wires go dead so he and his team can get to toppled trees and remove them.
"There are bunch of trees down, and people got lucky," said Larchmont resident Josh Greenblatt. "It very well could have (hit them)."
Liz Ward was without electricity or a backup generator. She said she didn't expect the outage to last so long.
"It's dark, it's cold, and we're picking up food out and going to the library to get internet and to charge up," she said. "That's basically it."
She said she was considering a temporary move.
"We may go to a hotel and board the dog if it's still out on Sunday night," she said.
The outages led Westchester County Executive George Latimer to lash out at New York State Electric & Gas on Saturday morning, saying the utility stopped responding to emails and phone calls and became totally unresponsive during the storm. He said residents were forced to sleep in homes with no power, heat or hot water – some with downed live wires outside.
New York State Electric & Gas tweeted Saturday that repairs were taking longer "due to the amount of damage."
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano also took to Twitter to criticize Con Edison, saying that by noon Saturday crews still hadn't arrived in the city. The police department added that residents should expect "delays regarding police service due to Con Edison's lack of response in the City of Yonkers."
Officials in New Rochelle said in addition to several thousand power outages, many traffic lights remained inoperable and many streets blocked with fallen trees.
By late Saturday night, tens of thousands of people were still without power.
Con Edison said 65,000 customers across New York City and Westchester County were in the dark. PSEG Long Island reported 63,000 people without power.
PSE&G in New Jersey had 58,000 customers affected, while Jersey Central Power and Light reported 105,000 outages.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
