ALBANY – Governor Cuomo has
ordered the State Department of Public Service to review power failures
after Winter Storm Riley last Friday. Four days after the storm, while power
has been restored to over 280,000 people, close to 75,000 customers remain
without electricity – 93 percent of those live in Dutchess, Putnam,
Sullivan and Westchester counties.
The governor said given the prolonged nature of the outages and “clear
breakdowns” in communications between the utilities and customers,
the Department of Public Service will review the utility preparations and
response to the storm, specifically targeting the utilities that serve Dutchess,
Putnam, Sullivan and Westchester – Con Edison, NYSEG, Orange and Rockland
Utilities and Central Hudson.
Cuomo called the power failures “dangerous and completely unacceptable,
and we will hold these utilities accountable for their failure to quickly
restore power to New Yorkers.”
Public Service Commission Chairman John Rhodes said his agency “will
undertake a thorough and intense review, because this response and restoration
has not met the expectations of New Yorkers.”
