NEW YORK -- 1010 WINS asked listeners to share their comments about the Queens power outage that has lasted five days now. If you would like to share your comments or photos e-mail them to
webstaff@wins.com.
Here is what our listeners have to say: Perhaps instead of the US govt. pouring billions and billons of dollars into an ungrateful Mideast (Iraq/Israel etc.) they should spend some of that money and rebuild the American infrastructure. Electric grids/roadways/rail lines/borders/Air traffic control systems, to name a few. People in the Gulf states are still displaced, and people in Astoria are a walking around in the dark. The govt. from the President down to the lowest city council members should get their priorities straight. . Les
I think it is time that the Mayor stopped being a spokesperson for Con Ed and be a champion for the people of New York! Specifically Astoria! What Con Ed has done is criminal and the mayor should persue this! Mr Mayor, the people of Astoria need your leadership and you to fight for Astoria, not your excuses for Con Ed!
I reside in Sunnyside, Queens where I eventually lost all power late Tuesday evening after spending the entire day living through a brown out condition. I spent several hours Wednesday afternoon placing telephone calls in an attempt to get some information on this power outage. Con Edison's telephone circuits were busy; the telephone operators at the City Hall's Office of Emergency Management and it's 311 information office had "no" information regarding the power crisis. By "no information" I mean those agencies had no knowledge on the status nor the problem itself. Basically City Hall got caught with it's pants down. Instead of doing it's own independent review, the Mayor's office relied on information from Con Edison, a private company, whom themselves do not have a handle on the situation. It wasn't until Thursday evening, after pleas from Queens politicians, did the Mayor and his staff visit the area only to learn that the situation was far worst than that reported by Con Edison. Now City Hall is trying to distance itself from Con Edison and attempting to project a positive PR image by throwing in all of it's resources into Queens. City Hall is just as responsible and negligent to some extent as Con Edison for letting this problem reached this point. Just as the Mayor's office has requested a full report from Con Edison concerning the power outage, so should we demand the same from the Mayor's office for City Hall's failure to act responsively. All I can say to Mayor Bloomberg for his initial lack of response to the Queens' residents in their time of need and his defending of Con Edison is "when you sleep with dogs, you'll get up with flees".
Rick, Sunnyside Queens
Thanks for staying on top of this story, 1010wins. I live on 43rd st and we lost power before 8 PM on Tuesday. Even with our battery powered radio, I heard nothing about Coned (conned) passing out ice or dry ice, and when I walked past the Steinway and Ditmars corner yesterday, there was only an OEM van with no one in it. As for reporting the blackouts, we called the night our power went out, and were told to call back the next day! They obviously were not taking it seriously, even though you just had to walk through the area to see how extensive the blackout was. That Coned didn't know how extensive the problem was is definitely not true, they've been driving around since Monday and Tuesday, they obviously knew that we have had not brown-outs, but complete powerlessness, all week, and over a very widespread area. It is a disgrace. That they'll reimburse people for spoiled food is fine, but what about everything else? The coolers and ice we bought, that weren't worth it anyway- that might have saved the food for a night or two, but we were not told at the beginning that it would be many days, and we still don't know how long it will be. The gas we spent driving to other towns to get ice, coolers, food? The dinners out, since we can't cook? Hours of work lost? None of this will be reimbursed. Coned has again disappointed.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to express our dissatisfaction with Con-Edison. My biggest complaint is the lack of preparation on the part of Con-Edison. I would think that a Utility of this magnitude should be making investments or maintaining the existing infrastructure. Why weren't these issues investigated on a "proactive" basis? I think Con-Ed should of been preparing for these spikes in utilization during the hot summer months. We have all been patient with the current situation but I think Con-Ed dropped the ball, not from a "reaction" standpoint but from a "proactive" perspective. I hope the root of the issues are thoroughly investigated so this can be avoided in the future (especially in the "dog days" of August!!). Thanks for your time.. - E -
Honestly, I don't get these people who say other boroughs should conserve their energy and other boroughs have higher priority over queens. First off, another borough conserving energy would not help our problem one bit. They cannot move that energy from their infrastructure (grid) to ours. It's physically impossible. So forget it. Secondly, if this happened in Midtown or the Upper East Side the problem would not be resolved by now. Sure they would have had immediate media attention and city aid but I don't think the majority of the people understand just how messed up the electric infrastructure is in our area. First thing is, they need to clean up all the melted cable, burnt out switches, interconnects, panels...etc, etc. TIME CONSUMING. Then comes implementing these new cables (which are huge and heavy). This included dressing, connecting, grounding, and securing these cables. Then you’re talking about all the new switches that need to be replaced. To make a long story short.....TIME CONSUMING! I truly believe Con Ed wants this problem resolved and as quickly as possible, it's a PR nightmare.....but this problem can't be resolved quickly. As for the Con Ed people standing around doing nothing, well, their idiots for handling themselves in an unprofessional manner. I guarantee they are there because Con Ed reacted by throwing a ton of people at the problem. People that aren't as skilled as the guys who are doing the major fixes. Guys that are waiting for the foreman to come up and say "Do this", "Do that". I'm sure there are people below ground that are out of site that are working pretty darn hard in poor conditions to get this problem resolved. In no way am I defending Con Ed. Believe me, I'm as pissed off as the next resident.....Con Ed lied to the public about how many people were out of service, they were hush hush about how long the problem would last, they are slow to react to helping the community, but what they are most guilty off is not preparing for this. There is no way periodic inspections of this equipment didn't raise a ton of red flags. No way. They dropped the ball by not preventing this mess. -tc
Here is a comment that no one has made yet. Why hasn't the mayor suspended alternate side of the street parking in Queens. After 5 grueling days with no electricity and hot water, the last thing on my mind is moving my vehicle to the correct side of the street. When I called 311 and asked why the alternate side of the street parking has not been suspended the woman on the line responded in a confused voice, " I don't understand, do you own an electric car"?? SHAME ON YOU MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND SHAME ON THE CITY. I feel like packing up my bags and leaving this city for good. Chris
We here in Astoria are good people. We work hard, pay taxes and keep the area very nice. I'm extremely angry with Con Edison because we've been treated so disrespectfully. Our electricity bills are over $100 a month and one would think Con Edison should be prepared for situations like this. I'm happy to hear our local politicians saying they are going to go after Con Edison and file criminal charges. There are a lot of nice elderly people living in my neighborhood and situations like this are so dangerous for them. I also feel it's important to note that considering the magnitude of the situation, there has not been a spike in crime. This is another testament to the good people of Astoria and other neighborhoods in Northwestern Queens.
I just wanted to say that your radio station has been my best friend this past week, much appreciated, i've been glued to your station...i got a little emotional (and was extremely grateful) hearing that reporter Lori go after Con Ed rep on Wednesday on air; it was nice to hear someone represent our outrage and disbelief. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the estimated #'s were much higher than originally anticipated...My dentist office hasn't answered their phone in 3 days, and they are located about 4 avenues North and 10 streets West of my apt; JUST IMAGINE the # of people within that range. I'm sure these businesses had complained/reported their outage at some point. If you have animals dying on 46th Street and 25th Avenue, and then have a dentist office closed on 31st and Ditmars Blvd, YOU DO THE MATH...This was purely Con Ed trying to cover their A**, plain and simple. I'll be following the aftermath of this story very closely, thanks to your station's excellent reporting and coverage! Warren
What is interesting, is that Astoria power failure didn't make the big news until yesterday. The lights are out in my neighborhood since Tuesday (45th street off Ditmars), but until last night we would only see occasional police car cruising streets at night. The mayor shows up - and look! - there is a cop on every intersection! I am happy to comply with ConEd request to reduce the power consumption. Mine is down to zero. I am happy that ConEd defines air conditioners as "non-essential appliances". Let's go back to nature. I am very happy that Mike Bloomberg is satisfied with ConEd work. At least someone is. And I support his statement "I'd rather they work than hold press conferences". Because you can't trust what ConEd people are saying anyway. Mike Bloomberg celebrated a new plan for the solid waste management yesterday. Good, because we have been sitting in s...olid waste up to the ears for a week. The mayor promised the power to be back today. Or on Sunday. I assume - for the "two thousand customers affected". As for the twenty eight thousand unaccounted for - don't hold your breath, neighbors. FEMA is watching. Red Cross is giving out bananas and water at night. Life is good. Unless you are, say, 70 years-old asthmatic in a house without "non-essential appliance". Well, no one promised you to live forever... Gene
I want to commend WINS reporter Stan Brooks for holding Mayor Bloomberg’s feet to the fire. Apparently the Mayor took umbridge that this diligent reporter kept “pestering” him because he had the audacity to remind him that 2000 law abiding, tax paying citizens (not the illegal criminal aliens that Mayor Taxberg said are keeping the City from an economic collapse) are still without power four days later. We didn’t have any four day blackouts on the watch of his predecessor, the Great Rudy Giuliani. Then again Rudy didn’t prevent Transgas from installing a new 1100 MW power plant that would have helped prevent this blackout, nor did the Great one give Con Ed a free pass and tell the powerless residents, I am only the Mayor, I’m not a policeman, the power should be on by Sunday. We need more Stan Brooks’, not the Mayor Bloomberg tush kissers at the NY Slimes and ABC, CBS and NBC. I salute you sir!!!!!!!
I am very disappointed in Con Ed and the City of NY. I have lived in Astoria for 16 years. We are very easy going, hard working class people who never complain. When I called Ed Con I get the same answer, we are working on it. We live with Con Ed in our back garden giving power to 60% of the city but not the people close to them. Michael Bloomberg waited four days before he made his first call to Con Ed. Four days before taking any action or posting news on the city website. I called the Mayor’s live radio show this morning to ask Mayor Bloomberg why he waited fours days before taking any action. After 30 minutes on hold the Mayor turned down my call. I think it is funny that the Triborough Bridge lights stayed on while all the homes around it are in the dark. Mayor Bloomberg will leave the city today to spend his weekend in his home in Bermuda while over 100,000 people in his city go without power and food. Mayor Bloomberg likes to think / run his city like a corporation. Right now his corporation has no CEO or Chairman and the production line is down! It’s nice to spend your money to became Mayor for the glory of it all but now its time to show us it was money well spend. Nigel, Ditmars Blvd Astoria
I find it hysterical that Con Ed did not know how many customers were without power. It's hysterical because when I tried to call Con Ed Wednesday morning to report my outage, I received an automated message that they were not accepting calls unless the call was an emergency. It's not like I'm on life support, so I didn't think that my temporary power outage was an emergency, and I did not press 1. Therefore, the automated person hung up on me although she did say "goodbye." I guess the 945 people who Con Ed reported without power on Wednesday were wise enough to consider this an emergency If Con Ed was actually taking calls, perhaps they would have known more, or if they just drove down Ditmars Boulevard, they could have gotten a pretty good clue. I also am puzzled by the Mayor's remarks that if he knew how big the problem was, he would have sent more resources to the area. It doesn't matter if the number is 1,000 or 25,000. Astoria is a hard-working community that contributes substantially to the work of this city. Any amount of outages should have attracted the City's attention. I'm sure the Mayor would have felt differently if the 1,000 outages were in Midtown, Wall Street, or the Upper East Side. Regards, Chris
ConEd posted a press release on their website asking residents to turn on their lights if they have power, so they can do a house to house search, find out who has some power (and can be left to rot in the heat all weekend) and who does not. But this is what I love. They post this on the web and annouce it on the TV news...neither of which will reach residents without power! What kind of backwards thinking is this? I hope my neighbors went out of their way to keep their lights OFF so maybe sometime this decade ConEd will make it to 35th Street. And I love how long they waited to pass out ice and dry ice. Yeah, the dry ice came in real handy on Thursday, when all my food was rotten by Tuesday night. But the topper of them all is the knowledge that if this had happened anywhere in Manhattan, it would have been taken care of immediately. Plus, Mayor Bloomnberg, thanks for belittleing our problem in the media by saying ConEd was doing a great job and how it wasn't much of a problem. Thanks Mikey, you really know how to make your constituents feel loved. --Deirdre
Dear 1010Wins, Thank you for staying on top of this story and keeping it as your leading news. I’m absolutely astounded at how many of my Manhattan friends and colleagues weren’t even aware there was a power outage problem in Queens. Perhaps if other media outlets had been as responsive and brought more attention to the horrible conditions, pressure from the city would have come on ConEd earlier and we could have this fixed already. The entire situation is untenable and inexcusable. There have been some reports that power is coming back on today. We had it for about an hour around 8:30 this morning, but then it went out again. So I really hope ConEd doesn’t think things are fixed. Thanks for the forum to vent. ~Leah
Dear Con Ed: I cannot tell you in words what I feel about this situation. I have lived in NY for most of my life and never have seen such A Fiasco. I feel neglected and let down by the biggest monopoly in town. Trust me cold showers are not fun, or having to run around the neighborhood looking for ice so that what's left of my food does not go to waste. Sleeping in the sweltering heat is no fun either. I understand there are problems and also that s-t happens, but why should I pay for it? I pay my Con Ed bills every month and they are very high. The reimbursements of money for spoiled food is another way of sticking it to us since YOU KNOW nobody saves supermarket or grocery store receipts. Can we make an arrangement so that we can have this week without power deducted from the next Con Ed bill based on last month's bill? I feel it is the least you can do. I have seen the crews working (or not) on the problem. I hope they get paid overtime and don't get screwed like us from dear Con Ed. And the mayor, oh the mayor. What can he do? He has power, he sleeps comfortably every night, he has tons of money and can afford to sleep in a fancy hotel or one of his mansions if this problem, by some miracle, came upon him. He may seem to care, but only his heart knows what he really feels about us. So, dear Mayor, I hope you never have to go through what we had to go through these last days. This is not the end of the world but we should be compensated for our suffering. Con Ed makes billions of dollars from us (they should be able to deduct the $$ from our bills). Alex S
In Sunnyside, most of the residences finally have power but the businesses have been asked to turn off air conditioning. The street lights are out so there are police directing traffic and big police lights set up for nighttime. Lots of nasty smelling garbage bags sit outside the grocery stores.
This started on Monday with 'voltage reductions.' Bloomberg, the NY Times, the NY Post - all of the major media - were either unaware of or not bothered by this situation until it became news that Rikers was affected and Gioia and Vallone started to scream and yell.
When I called ConEd on Wednesday, I was told that 9 households in Manhattan were affected and 20,000 in Queens. The Mayor's annoyance with ConEd is a joke!
1) Take your garbage bags of spoiled food, eggs, milk, meat, whatever: put them on the doorstep of Con Ed's main offices. Don't do this to Gracie Mansion; the mayor's never there. He lives in a town house elsewhere in NYC. At least some of the week, he does. Try the Hamptons during the summer.
2) Send the Mayor a map on how to get to the bridges that lead to the "world," ie, not Manhattan or the Hamptons. Tell him that Queens is that thing he flies over on the way to his weekend cottage. Tell him it's that useless flap of morons who voted him "somewhere around Shea Stadium, where the Mets play. Or the Nets. I forget which. Something with 'ets' in it."
3) Call Con Ed and ask if they're "on it?" They'll ask "on what?' and you can chuckle and laugh. It beats TV, which you can't watch anyways.
4) Measure the height of each technicians' shrug when you ask how long your power's going to be out. Some technicians shrug as high as seven inches! Now THAT's a shrug!
5) Ask Con Ed how we're supposed to call them to tell them our power's off when our cordless phones run on electricity. They'll laugh and laugh. Such fun. I remember we had fun like this when I was a boy. Back when we had electricity. -Jeremy
I am passing this on to you - Publish it if you dare.... AS NORMAL BIG COMPANY'S THINK OF THE PUBLIC AS IGNORANT PEOPLE, TRUTH POWER WENT OUT IN LGA AIRPORT ON MONDAY JULY 17 NO SERVICE IN OR OUT OF LGA... FACT AIR TRAFFIC WAS COMING BACK INTO LGA ON TUESDAY JULY 18 AND NOW THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN ASTORIA, LIC,AND SUNNYSIDE LOST MOST OF THE POWER. VERY STRANGE ISN'T IT THAT POWER IS RESTORED TO LGA IN LESS THAN A DAY AND THEN GOES OUT ALL AROUND LGA AND EVERYONE INCLUDING THE MAYOR IS KEEPING IT HUSH HUSH -Bernie
this morning, at 6:30 am, my wife and i woke up - late - because of no alarm clock. we peeled off our sticky sleepwear - sticky because of no air conditioning - and got dressed. we put the leash on our very uncomfortable dog - uncomfortable becaues there is no fan or air conditioner to blow on him - and then walked down 7 flights of stairs - walked, because of no elevator. we walked our dog several blocks, and did not see ONE ConEd truck. we saw several verizon trucks, and we saw a dozen police officers, but not one ConEd truck. this, to me, is not "working around the clock," as ConEd proclaims to be doing. the walk encompasses 5 blocks east and west, and 5 blocks north and south. and not one ConEd truck. ConEd does not seem to know their rear end from their elbow. they have proclaimed about 2000 customers are without power. my building complex alone houses nearly that many people! i suppose i should take solace in the fact that ConEd has "urged" me to "reduce (my) use of electricity" (because, of course, since i have no electricity to begin with, that's a BRILLIANT idea!), that they are "doing everything possible to restore power", and "that outages weren't more widespread." (all quotes taken from the ConEd website). Personally, after not having power since Monday, i'm thrilled that everyone else does! Three cheers for ConEd! do they want a medal or something?!!? or perhaps, instead, the hundreds of dollars of rotting meat in my freezer would be a better prize? Thank You Con Ed, for doing such a fan-freaking-tastic job! Morons - may they all have to take the same freezing shower i do every day, because i've got no hot water either! Josh in Woodside
I am a resident of 46th Street off of Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria. My home has been completely without power since Monday night. I have called ConEd several times to gather information with varying success. In one conversation with a representative, I was told that the ConEd call centers themselves were fielding calls "in the dark," doing what "they are asking their customers to do."
Then, not a few hours later, I called and spoke with another rep and heard music playing in the background--it must have been a battery-operated radio (the rep also had a bridge in Brooklyn she was willing to sell me and the clear Blue Sky for a reasonable price).
Then, I proceeded to ask why the automated message during the hold time states that power would be "fully" restored in Westchester by Sunday and yet there is no indication of when power would be restored in Northwest Queens. I was told that there is a timeline for restoration in Westchester because ConEd has had the opportunity to "assess and evaluate" the conditions and problems there whereas they hadn't yet been able to figure out the extent of the damage in Queens.
Interestingly enough, I was told that I should "put a ticket in" a.k.a. a report to alert ConEd that the power was out at my house and to send someone over. That is pure lipservice. I then asked if other residents on my block had "put in tickets" as I was told that the only way to stay abreast of updates and/or estimates as to when power would be restored for a given grid or block was if "tickets" had been put in and servicepeople had come around to take a look. I asked if they could look at the tickets that my neighbors surely put in and was told that no one on my block had put in a ticket--I assured her that I was not the only one to have called. And then she proceeded to say that a house at 2175 46th Street had partial power restored -- that's awesome because there 2175 46th Street does not exist.
The people of Astoria who pay their ConEd bills with hard-earned dollars month after month want more than "answers" or explanations for what went wrong or estimates for times/dates of restoration--they want power and they want it NOW.
Nik
Here’s a comment no one else has made. Although ConEd has sent out “over 500” people to work on the power in Astoria, how many of them are actually working? I’m lucky enough to live right by one of the main ice distribution sites on Steinway and Ditmars. Walking from the Ditmars subway stop, I counted 8 ConEd employees. Interestingly enough, only 2 of them were actually working. The other 6 were sitting on their bulbous, unionized posteriors checking out the women walking by. I greatly respect those two I saw, working hard, sweating under dangerous conditions. Those other 6 ought to be forced to live in a steamy apartment with a 3-month-old crying because of the heat. --Jason
i have to let you know that i live in woodside, queens and we started experiencing a brown out on monday--not tuesday. so basically we've been without power and hot water for a week now. i'm convinced that if this had happened to a higher income neighborhood (I.e. Manhattan), they would have had power restored already. i haven't seen a Con Ed person since the day before yesterday in my neighborhood. i wish they would stop lying to us and just fix everything. ~angie
Again Queens residents must endure being treated like 2nd class citizens - remember John Lindsay and I believe the snow of '69'.
I just wanted to find out how Con Ed comes up with the 1800 number as the number of Con Ed clients who have no power. I live at the Phipps Garden Apartments at 51-01 39th Avenue in Sunnyside/Long Island City. We are 500 apartments and I am sure there are at least 2 people in each apartment which would be about 1000 Con Ed clients living there so where do they get the 1800 number from. Some of the apartments have no power and other apartments (like my own fortunately) just got some power back. 2 of my AC outlets (separate outlets just for the AC) have power so I have used an extension cord to connect my refrigerator and another for my AC/fan.
Yesterday, on my way home from work I happen upon a Budget truck on 39th Avenue & 49th Street giving out ice (somewhat melted - no dry ice by the way) and some water bottles. I don't recall hearing or seeing any signs indicating they would be there so I was surprised to see them and quickly pulled over and got some ice and water. While I was walking my dog I told my neighbors about the truck and they quickly ran to get some ice and water - they also were unaware of this distribution site. However, by the time they got there (10 mins) the water was finished and the con ed guys there told them they were awaiting another truck load.
I hear from Con Ed and Mayor Mike (finally I guess no one on his staff knew how to get to Queens since it took him 4 days to get here and even then under the protection of the media and not willing to speak with the public - but let's not go there!) that its difficult to say what happened and especially how long it will take for power to come on for everyone but I would think that by the year 2006 Con Ed would have figured that we need more power as we have increased our population in Queens and other areas of New York and at this day and age almost everyone has an AC, television, microwave and computers which use up a lot of energy so why do we continue to have these brown outs and black outs every time the temperature hits above 90° - GO FIGURE...........
I did find it ironic that on Wednesday as I was sweating going through my mail I happen to have received my CON ED bill for $139.83 - tough decision pay or don't pay, hmmmmmmmmmm
Again to recap Sunnyside has no street lights, no traffic lights and many a home has no power. Phipps Houses has some power. The area is between 48th Street and Woodside Avenue and from Barnett Avenue up to Skillman and even further into Queens Blvd.
send help..........
A frustrated Long Island City resident with a con ed bill to pay.. Maria
Dear 1010 wins,
Thank you for reporting this accurately.
first of all. No one has been giving us information at the so called Con ed "information vans", two days ago we were told they would be distributing dry ice at 8am. I took the morning off of work to wait for them,(adding to the $200 of lost food, I lost another $200 of work that day) and they told me at 8am that it would be 9am or later, the first truck arrived at noon with bags of ice cubes NOT dry ice. (Ice cubes melt in a few hours, dry ice lasts up to 24 and keeps food at a safe temperature for consuming) we were then told the dry ice was going to Westchester. around 630pm we finally got in line for dry ice. families were lining up gathering 4 and 5 bags while the rest of the honest people waited and took their 1 bag. an hour later, I saw a group of teen agers in the park across the street making "dry ice bombs" (dry ice explodes when it comes in contact with water) the Police did NOTHING. These "children" were actually teen agers who were not only wasting dry ice that the people of Astoria need, but they were doing it in public not a half a block away from the Con ed distributing truck and the police. again I'm outraged at the way this has been handled... don't even get me started on our lovely so called Mayor. it took him how many days to get some action? Can you say FEMA? can you say Hurricane Katrina? I bet you any amount of money that if this happened on the upper east side or down by wall street or anywhere near the Mayors house, this would have been fixed in less than 24 hours, but because the areas affected (Bronx, Astoria) are of an economically depressed area it's never handled with the appropriate urgency or care. Again, as a tax paying citizen, and a person who prides himself with paying his CON ED bill on time, I am outraged at their constant neglect of these hard working citizens of NY. My land lord's are an elderly couple who can't handle the heat are in danger of heat exhaustion and I worry about all the elderly in queens who have no power and light. Can we please get it together Con ed and the Mayor fix the problem and get these hard working, tax paying people the power they deserve. Just remember the first word in electricity is "CON" and they've been doing just that CONNING us out of our money!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annoyed in Astoria.
Is that it had to get this bad before anyone said anything on it in the news. If this was the upper east side of manhattan they would have had this fixed a day later. Our local stores especially the Ctown supermarket are getting hammered and have been
Closed for three days. I have seen a woman and her son sleep outside on the street One night because it was so hot in her apt. Get this s--t fixed soon and
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