Thousands of Brooklyn residents are still feeling the bitter chill of outages caused by last week's snow, with many going without power for over 24 hours. The culprit? A messy mix of salt and water that Con Edison claims is causing localized service interruptions.
The city's sanitation department has dumped a staggering 116 million pounds of salt on streets and sidewalks to combat the snow, but it seems like this effort has backfired. When mixed with water, the salt seeps underground where Con Edison's cables run, leading to electrical shorts, rust, and equipment failure.
"This is why portions of certain neighborhoods are experiencing outages," said a spokesperson for Con Edison, Jamie McShane. "Our crews will remain on site until every customer is restored." However, with more than a week after the snowfall still having streets and sidewalks buried under a foot or more of snow, it's proving to be an uphill battle.
Residents in Brooklyn have had to dig out their cars just to get access to the system, let alone repair damaged cables. One resident described how it took over 24 hours for service to be restored to his buildings. "We've had to go door-to-door to make sure our elderly have somewhere to stay," he said.
The situation is not without its critics, however. Local businesses were unable to operate over the weekend due to outages, and some residents are now calling on Con Edison to automatically suspend billing and issue full credits for the outage.
"This outage comes amid significant and widely reported increases in utility bills," wrote City Councilmember Shahana Hanif. "Constituents are being asked to pay more while experiencing extended service failures - an untenable situation that demands immediate corrective action."
The city's sanitation department has dumped a staggering 116 million pounds of salt on streets and sidewalks to combat the snow, but it seems like this effort has backfired. When mixed with water, the salt seeps underground where Con Edison's cables run, leading to electrical shorts, rust, and equipment failure.
"This is why portions of certain neighborhoods are experiencing outages," said a spokesperson for Con Edison, Jamie McShane. "Our crews will remain on site until every customer is restored." However, with more than a week after the snowfall still having streets and sidewalks buried under a foot or more of snow, it's proving to be an uphill battle.
Residents in Brooklyn have had to dig out their cars just to get access to the system, let alone repair damaged cables. One resident described how it took over 24 hours for service to be restored to his buildings. "We've had to go door-to-door to make sure our elderly have somewhere to stay," he said.
The situation is not without its critics, however. Local businesses were unable to operate over the weekend due to outages, and some residents are now calling on Con Edison to automatically suspend billing and issue full credits for the outage.
"This outage comes amid significant and widely reported increases in utility bills," wrote City Councilmember Shahana Hanif. "Constituents are being asked to pay more while experiencing extended service failures - an untenable situation that demands immediate corrective action."