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WHITE PLAINS - Westchester County legislators yesterday heard from a woman who said it took more than a day for Consolidated Edison Inc. to respond to her reports of a utility pole burning near her home, a restaurateur who lost an estimated $10,000 a day for nearly a week during an outage and a police chief from Eastchester whose station was out of power for two days.
The legislators and speakers at a three-hour hearing excoriated the utility company for its response to this year's blackouts, particularly the mass outage caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which swept through the region over Labor Day weekend.
Alice Thompson, an Eastchester woman, may have told the most frightening story to the legislators who serve on the Committee on the Environment and Energy when she described her desperate efforts to get Con Edison to respond to a downed wire and burning utility pole near her home.
She said a tree hit the wires and pole on Saturday, Sept. 2. The next day, the tree slipped and the pole "ignited like a torch," throwing sparks, she said.
She said Con Edison workers she spoke with by phone told her they could not get ahold of supervisors to get her help. It was not until later that day that the fire was extinguished, she said.
Hearing stories like that discouraged Rachel Aranoff, a White Plains woman who was also unhappy with Con Edison's response to the outages.
"I'm leaving here more than frustrated," she said. "I'm leaving here frightened."
She told the committee that a prolonged power outage affects people in ways others may not realize. She said someone in her family broke a glass in the kitchen during the outage. Since there were no lights, it was impossible to clean up the broken pieces, making her fear for the safety of her three young children.
Con Edison, which calls itself one of the most reliable utility companies in the nation, has been on the spot for what critics say was the company's slow response to outages caused by winter weather in January, a heat wave and storms in July and Ernesto this month.
Critics said the company was slow in restoring power and provided inaccurate estimates of how long it would take to get customers back in power.
John L. Skedas, who runs Mighty Joe Young's, a restaurant in Hartsdale, said he became so frustrated he drove to Con Edison's offices in Rye during the outage. He joked that he was happy when he realized he had parked in a spot reserved for a vice president because he thought it might force the vice president to confront him and give him a chance to ask for answers.
But he said he still did not get the help he wanted.
J. Mark Drexel, director of emergency management for the utility giant, said the storm's track and intensity took the company by surprise. Forecasters thought it would move quickly and cause most of its damage west of the region, he said.
Instead, it moved east and stalled over the region, producing more than two inches of rain and winds of up to 45 mph. More than 1,000 trees, 100 poles, 70 transformers and 2,300 wires were knocked down, he said.
But he said the company began a vigorous response, mobilizing its own resources as well as personnel from other areas. The company had more than 200 crews, nine times its normal manpower, on duty on Sept. 2, he said.
He said that by the end of the month the company will have an additional 200 telephone trunk lines to make it easier for customers to call in and get updates or report emergencies. The company also plans an aggressive tree-trimming program, he said.
But legislators were unimpressed by Drexel's defense and also knocked the state Public Service Commission, the agency that oversees utilities in New York.
Thomas Abinanti, the chairman, said he had no more confidence after the meeting than he did before that Con Edison will be prepared to handle the next emergency. He and other exasperated legislators noted that they held three other meetings with Con Edison at which they heard promises that went unfilled when an outage hit, they said.
Legislators and speakers also criticized the company for its handling of claims many made to get reimbursement for spoiled food.
James T. Gallagher, the director of the office of electricity and the environment for the public service commission, said the agency plans to hire an auditor to conduct an examination of Con Edison. The company's rate agreement with the state also calls for the company to make rebates to customers if the state is unhappy with its performance and it is likely the state will exercise that clause this year.
"I can tell you right now Con Edison's performance has declined from prior years," he said.
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