Heat Wave in New York Left Thousands Without Power

Last week’s heat wave left thousands of Con Edison customers without power across the city.
Heat Wave in New York Left Thousands Without Power
Zachary Stieber
6/20/2012
Updated:
8/20/2012

NEW YORK—Last week’s heat wave left thousands of Con Edison customers without power across the city.

About 1,700 customers had power knocked out Friday morning, 1,400 of them in Brooklyn. Con Edison said high temperatures caused the outages, and asked customers to reduce their power consumption.

By Friday afternoon, about 2,600 customers were without power, including 740 in Brooklyn, 240 in Queens, and 930 Westchester County, according to the company. The company said both the heat wave and afternoon storms caused the outage. An additional 4,438 customers in Staten Island had service knocked out on Friday afternoon, after a wire stopped working, according to the Staten Island Advance.

An online map on the company’s website displays up-to-the-minute power outage information. On Sunday afternoon, less than a dozen households had partial or no power in the New York metro area.

Con Edison’s website said New Yorkers should take steps to save energy and save money on energy bills. The company suggested cleaning air conditioners’ filters, not setting thermostats lower than 78 degrees, and running appliances such as ovens, washing machines, and dishwashers in the early morning or late night.