WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. By John F. Bailey. July 25, 2006. INTERVIEW WITH CON EDISON: Within less than 24 hours Con Edison has reversed its policy of food spoilage refunds for Westchester residents stated Monday evening before a county hearing by Mark Drexel, its Acting Director of Emergency Management.

Drexel reported to have said  the 50,000 Con Edison customers who lost power from a tornado two weeks ago, and heat-related blackouts and outages by severe thunderstorms one week ago today and last Friday would have to produce some proof of food losses to receive payouts, but the payouts would be limited to $150 without receipts to Westchester residents and $350 to Queens residents.

Con Edison reversed this policy sometime today, WPCNR has learned.  Food spoilage will be limited to those customers who suffered outages due to failure of Con Edison equipment.

 WPCNR learned this in attempting to confirm an approximate 3:55 P.M. WCBS 880 news report that Westchesterites could now receive refunds up to $350 without receipts that Mr. Drexel's reported statements last night in The Journal News and reconfirmed this morning on WCBS Radio and this afternoon is not correct.

WPCNR, too, was told by Con Edison's Media Relations office yesterday that Westchester residents who had food spoilages from the storm could apply for reimbursement using the form on the Con Edison website, but would be limited to $150 without receipts.  It was not made clear by the Media Relations office yesterday at any time that this was related to equipment losses only. Today this policy is no longer in effect, if it ever was.

In this morning's Journal News,  Mark Drexel of Con Edison was reported to have said Westchesterites and County Legislators that Westchester residents were only entitled to $150 of food spoilage payments without receipts rather than $350 without receipts the Queens residents were entitled to and did not state a reason. WCBS Radio reported this morning the reason for the recept limitation on Westchester was because of Con Ed's agreement with the Public Service Commission and that the Queens residents' outages were related to equipment while Westchester residents outages were related to storm problems.

Reverse of Policy

Chris Olert a spokesperson for Con Edison's Department of Media Relations told WPCNR this afternoon that Westchester residents whose outages were caused by the fallen trees and downed lines from last Tuesday's storm hitting Scarsdale, White Plains, Harrison, New Rochelle, and assorted other areas were not eligible for food spoilage reimbursement. WCBS Radio has since amended its 3:55 radio report to that effect.

Mr. Olert's statements to WCPNR:

"For residential customers, we had been prior to this last outage,Con Edison had requested documentation for their losses. Since the 18th-19th outages from our equipment, we estimate there were approximately 8,000 customers who may have been affected prior to the storm. These are not storm-related" Olert said. "but failures, unique to Westchester. We estimate there were fewer than 8,000 that may have been effected by our equipment failures for 12 consecutive hours without electricity that would potentially spoil food."

WPCNR: But there were 25,000 in Westchester affected..."

Olert: But from storm-related, unrelated to our equipment. Tree coming down on a wire because of high winds are not covered in our agreement with the PSC."

WPCNR: So those 8,000 (eligible) are within the 25,000 or 8,000 plus the 24,000.

Olert: John, storms are not included in potential claims for food spoilage. They're exempt. We worked this out with the PSC  three years ago..

WPCNR: Then how come CBS radio reported this morning that Con Ed said the reason Westchester residents were limited to $150 was because it (the outages) was equipment-related in Queens, and not in Westchester? Seems to me to be a contradiction?

Olert: WCBS Radio was wrong. And they have been corrected.

WPCNR: A few moments ago (3:55) they broadcast a report saying exactly what I asked you about in my first call to you (when WPCNR called to confirm Westchester was now eligible for $350 spoilage payments without receipts). You better recorrect them.

WPCNR: Could this be construed to be related to fact that you did not have enough "equipment"  to get repairs done before the food started to spoil? 

Olert: Not necessarily.

WPCNR: In White Plains, according to our Commissioner of Public Works, for the first two days you only had two line crews in here. Is that correct?

Olert: I'll have to check.

WPCNR: Do you consider line crews equipment?

Olert: No, that's personnel.

WPCNR: Bottom line: No one (who lost power)who had wind damage from last week's storm in Westchester County (causing it) is entitled to a food spoilage refund. Is that correct?

Olert: Absolutely.

WPCNR: Will this be noted shortly on your website?

Olert: I'll try to bring it to their attention.