More than 1.2 million homes and businesses in New York and 1.5 million in New Jersey were still without power yesterday, four days after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the US East Coast, the states’ power companies said.
Most utility companies in the two states said it could take a week or longer to restore power to all customers in the wake of Sandy, the worst natural disaster to strike their customers.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo sent a letter Thursday to the CEOs of state power companies, saying he would “take appropriate action against those utilities and their management if they do not meet their obligations to New Yorkers in this time of crisis.”
“I recognise there are men and women in the field now working hard to restore service... but it is your job to provide them with adequate resources and support to get the job done in a timely and safe manner,” Cuomo said.
New York’s Consolidated Edison Inc, the biggest utility in the state, said yesterday about 569,600 homes and businesses in New York City and Westchester County were without power, down from more than 900,000 affected by the storm.
Con Edison serves more than three million customers in New York City and Westchester County.
In New Jersey, Public Service Enterprise Group Inc said about 700,000 customers were still out, down from 1.7 million. PSEG serves about 2.2 million customers in the state.
FirstEnergy Corp’s Jersey Central Power and Light utility reported more than 713,100 customers were still without power, down from more than one million affected by the storm. JCP&L serves about 1.2 million in New Jersey.
Across the US Northeast power companies have restored electricity to more than half of the 8.48 million customers left without service, leaving nearly 3.6 million without service in 11 states yesterday morning, federal data showed.
Con Edison said it expects to make significant progress restoring electricity to all customers over the next seven days.
In lower and mid-Manhattan, Con Edison has said it expected to restore power by today.
But the company warned that more than 100 buildings that have had their power restored were still without electricity due to flooding in basements or damage to local equipment.
“Utilities, like elected officials, are vested with the public’s trust. In the case of utilities, in exchange for conducting business and generating profits for their shareholders, they are entrusted to provide safe and adequate utility service,” Cuomo said in his letter.
“When they fail to keep the public’s trust, they must answer,” the governor said.
He warned: “If you failed to prepare... I would direct the Public Service Commission to commence a proceeding to revoke your Certificates (of public convenience and necessity).”
To date, Con Edison said its crews have restored electricity to more than 320,000 customers affected by Sandy.
Elsewhere in New York, the Long Island Power Co (Lipa) said it still had about 529,800 customers without power, down from more than 900,000.
Lipa serves about 1.1 million customers on Long Island.
Post-storm anger is growing, especially outside Manhattan
Frustration grew for superstorm Sandy’s victims in the US Northeast yesterday, many of whom were left with no power, no gasoline and little information about when their shattered lives might return to normal.
While Manhattan prepared to host the annual New York City Marathon tomorrow, acute gasoline shortages in the city’s storm-battered outer boroughs and New Jersey led to long lines and short tempers.
Tankers finally began entering New York Harbour on Thursday, and a tanker carrying two million barrels of gasoline arrived at 2am (0600 GMT) yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
Sandy, which brought a record storm surge to coastal areas, killed at least 102 people after slamming into the US Northeast on Monday. Forty-one died in New York City, about half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water.
Starting before dawn yesterday, long lines of cars snaked around gasoline stations around the area in scenes reminiscent of the energy shortage of the 1970s.
“The police are stopping people who are trying to cut in the line,” said Steven Golub, 53, an attorney who waited in line for hours at a Manhattan gas station. “There’s no gas anywhere else. There was a guy with diplomatic plates who tried to cut in the line and one of the cab drivers complained so the police actually stopped him.”
Police were in place at many spots to keep the peace between furious, frustrated drivers. In one instance, a man who attempted to cut in line was charged with threatening another driver with a gun on Thursday in the borough of Queens.
“When people cut the line, people are about to stone them,” said Chris Allegretta, who had stood in line for 90 minutes with a gas can at a filling station in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Less than 40 per cent of all gas stations in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey operated on Thursday because of a combination of power outages and constricted supplies after the storm devastated the energy industry’s ability to move fuel into and around the New York City region.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island yesterday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored.
President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, has so far received praise for his handling of storm relief. But scenes of angry storm victims could affect the US political campaign with Election Day four days away.
“They forgot about us,” said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighbourhood as having been “annihilated”. “And Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on,” she said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Rising seawater flooded lower Manhattan, much of which still lacked power and subway service yesterday, while midtown and uptown Manhattan were close to normal.
Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg’s decision to proceed with the marathon tomorrow, vowing the event – which attracts more than 40,000 runners – would not divert any resources from storm victims.
“I just walked past four huge generators. Those could be put to use for people who need them,” said Marjorie Dial, a tourist from Oregon who was shocked to see the generators in Central Park, where the marathon finishes. “What they’ve discovered on Staten Island should have been the tipping point – the bodies.”
New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account: “If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I’ll scream.”
Forecasts for colder temperatures only added to the tension, since many in New Jersey and elsewhere have been using fuel-powered generators to run lights and heaters while waiting for utilities to repair downed power lines.
Disaster modelling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses, double its previous forecast. New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimated economic losses of $15 billion to $18 billion in New York state alone.
At the high end of the range, Sandy would rank as the fourth costliest US catastrophe, according to the Insurance Information Institute, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Sandy started as a late-season hurricane in the Caribbean, where it killed 69 people, before smashing ashore in the United States with 80-mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds. It stretched from the Carolinas to Connecticut and was the largest storm by area to hit the United States in decades. (Reuters)