WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. March 16,2010: White Plains Commissioner of Public Works, Joseph “Bud” Nicoletti gave WPCNR a status report on the state of powering-up White Plains, giving a clearer picture of how the big power-up after the weekend “storm with no name” cut off electricity to over 7,000 White Plains residents and toppled an estimated 1,000 trees to earth in the city. That “power-up” continues at this hour with 2,588 White Plainsian Customers without power as of 10 P.M.
Nicoletti said Tuesday evening in an interview with WPCR, that parts of the North End, Jefferson Avenue, Coolidge and Holbrook still need to be cleared of trees and live wires on the streets – 6 streets remain out of a list of 30 streets that were unpassable due to felled trees and live wires, and another 15 to20 streets blocked by trees did not have live voltage wires blocking them, he said when the race to power-up began Sunday morning as the storm subsided.
Restoration of power takes place in a 3rd step when Con Ed technicians return to outage scenes and reconnect neighborhoods and individual homes.
Nicoletti explained the process the last 72 hours:
“Of those 30 streets in White Plains (with wires downed on trees), we had to follow the Con Edison crew systematically around from location to location. It is time-consuming. It can take sometimes as long as 2 to 4 hours for Con Edison to identify locations of switches and routing of all the wires and verify it with Con Ed headquarters. When they are assured all is off then Con Edison forestry crews (Asplundh and Lewis) do an initial clean up of the poles and wires, a process we call cutting and clearing and our crews of forestry men and trucks come in and clear the street.”
Nicoletti said the city had one Con Edison De-Energizing crew consisting of 5-men, one aerial bucket truck and a supervisor truck from 8 A.M. Sunday until midnight Sunday. He said a second Con Ed De-Energizing Team arrived Monday at 8 AM, with no De-Energizing crew from midnight Sunday to 8 A.M. Monday.
At 4 P.M Monday, the team from Sunday came back and the city had two teams De-Energizing for 4 hours Monday evening. Today, Tuesday, one De-Energizing team worked through the night and 2 new teams, one from out-of-state arrived at 8 A.M., providing two de-energizing crews all day today.
Asked if he had had more de-energizing teams brought in all day on Sunday and Monday, if it would have made a difference, Nicoletti said, “We could have done a little more, a little faster, but noted that this was not at all like the microburst of four years ago which affected a much narrower area. Con Edison’s entire coverage area was affected, and resources stretched.” He noted with the arrival of out-of-state crews today and 2 De-Energizing Crews, it has been going much faster.
Nicoletti said the city got their first Con Edison “De-energizing” crew Sunday morning at 8 AM, and were able to work with that crew following them around from location to location to clear streets.
Nicoletti said he worked closely with White Plains Police Chief James Bradley to identify the priority of the street clearing. He said they began with Prospect Park because both entrances to Prospect were blocked, preventing access by emergency vehicles. The city cleared what they could Saturday night and when the first Con Ed aerial De-Energizing team arrived they awaited de-energizing to finish the job.
Nicoletti said “We have weeks of clean-up ahead of us.” He said his men have been working 16 overlapping shifts around the clock. “The guys have been doing a great job,” he said.
Mr.Nicoletti said that often in order to do restorations, Con Edison has to shut off feeds to neighborhoods and streets that have power, and this is the reason why some homeowners who did not lose power during the storm may suffer temporary power losses as restoration moves faster through the week. Nicoletti said his crews only work with Con Edison during de-energizing, that restorations do not involve the city crews.
Nicoletti estimated that 1,000 trees have been toppled in the city. His department has counted 500 city trees, and he estimates at least as many have fallen in private yards and properties.
He said his department had clocked wind gusts of 66 Miles per Hour during Saturday night. He blamed the excessive tree kill on the recent snowmelt which already made tree limbs heavier, and the 4 to 5 inches of rain that saturated the earth with the tropical storm force winds supplying the knockdown punch.
According to the City of White Plains website as of 11 P.M,:
DPW crews have already cleared the trees that had no power lines attached to them on Holbrook Road, Bayne Place, Barker Avenue, Bryant Avenue, Midland Avenue, Richbell Road, Alan Drive, Patricia Lane, Lake Street and North Broadway, Rosedale Avenue, Whitewood Lane, Soundview Avenue, Vermont Avenue, Chatham Place, Gedney Esplanade, Rolling Ridge Road, Ridgeway, Miles Avenue, Prospect Avenue, South Broadway, Longview Avenue, and Ridgeview.
Some secondary roads that have downed trees will be cleared. They include Midland Avenue, Soundview , Gedney Esplanade, Church Street, Westview, Leith Place, Jefferson Avenue, and Vermont Avenue.
