'I'm So Excited:' Crews Make Progress Restoring Power Across Tri-State
OSSINING, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Storm cleanup efforts continue after two nor'easters lashed the Tri-State Area within a week.
Crews worked to restore power for at least 40,000 customers still in the dark late Saturday night.
While at least 8,000 Con Edison customers, 70 New York State Electric & Gas and 60 PSEG Long Island customers remained without power, New Jersey has been the hardest hit by the storms.
More than 24,000 Jersey Central Power & Light customers remain affected, while PSE&G is working to restore power for more than 7,000 customers.
Cleaning up from Wednesday's storm hasn't been easy. Communities all over are still clearing debris, while dealing with the scores of outages. Some have been living without electricity for more than a week.
WEB EXTRA: CBS2's Dave Carlin Demands Answers From Con Edison:
Late Saturday night, Denise Davis and her neighbors at The Woods condominium complex in Ossining finally got some good news. After nine days in the dark, their lights turned back on.
"I'm so excited. Thank you CBS and thank you," she told CBS2's Erin Logan. "I think it was the pressure and the attention."
About an hour after Logan arrived at the complex, Con Ed workers showed up, too. Residents made sure to ask questions.
"You can't go away and then do nothing again. Nobody has helped us for 10 days," one woman said.
"I'm not going anywhere. I've got trucks coming in," a worker replied.
WEB EXTRA: CBS2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer Demands Answers From Gov. Andrew Cuomo:
Residents told Logan they didn't trust what anyone was telling them.
"Disrespect. It's despicable how Con Ed has treated this community and this county," the woman added.
"This wasn't that bad of a storm, it wasn't Sandy, there wasn't mass destruction," Davis said.
"I'm curious why Gov. Cuomo is not addressing this issue and why didn't he visit Westchester County any time during these nine days," said Chris Baldassarri.
On Thursday, the governor told CBS2's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer he doesn't actually have to be in Westchester for Con Ed to get the job done. To prove it, he upped the ante, threatening to pull the utility's license.
The next day, Con Ed CEO John McAvoy admitted the utility's system for notifying customers had numerous glitches. People were told power was back on when it wasn't.
"It certainly added another level of frustration for our customers," he said. "We deeply regret, deeply regret the impact it's had on them."
"I want to see change in the corporate boardroom" Westchester County Executive George Latimer said. "There was a failure on the streets of this county, and someone's gonna be accountable for it."
Davis said, in her case, her grandchildren made the stressful situation easier to deal with.
"We go under the covers and snuggle," 6-year-old Amelia said.
Davis will, of course, miss that but she's glad the ordeal is over.
"I absolutely didn't think it was going to happen until mid-week at the earliest," she said.
Con Ed has called this one of the largest restoration campaigns following a pair of destructive storms.
The utility said customers who lost power during Friday's nor'easter should be restored by Sunday night, while the remaining customers should have it back on by Monday night.
A JCP&L official told CBS2's Marc Liverman on Friday they expect to have power restored to customers who have been without power since last Friday's storm by late Saturday night.
The utility blamed the close timing of the back-to-back storms for the delay.
