Isaias Aftermath: NYC area hoping for power restoration by Sunday night

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Only Superstorm Sandy caused more outages than Tropical Storm Isaias, and days later 700,000 customers are still without power.

New York City Emergency Management announced Con Edison is working to restore 95% of power by 11 p.m. Sunday.

The torrential rains and strong winds from fast-moving Tropical Isaias dealt such a wallop that millions were left without power in the Tri-State area, and governors had to put into place emergency orders to speed up the recovery.

Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a State of Emergency for downstate New York to enable the state to provide additional levels of support to local governments throughout the clean-up and recovery process.

Nearly 2.5 million people lost power in the region.

Con Ed is urging patience, saying the destruction from this storm is second only to Superstorm Sandy.

The emergency order covers the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess counties.

NEW YORK CITY

More than 10,000 customers are without power in hard-hit Queens and 20,000 citywide.

Con Edison hopes to restore power to those customers Sunday evening. They say additional crews are arriving today to help fast track the process.

Con Edison has expanded its claims policy, so for any customer who has been without power for more than 48 hours can file a claim and get reimbursement for spoiled food, medication or anything else that is perishable.

Con Edison President Tim Cawley says it is some of the most significant damage he's seen in his 33 years at the company.

Cawley says most of the work requires infrastructure and rebuild rather than just repair.

He expects to have service back to everyone by 11 p.m. Sunday night.

On Friday morning, a massive but brief power outage had a big impact on Upper Manhattan, affecting 187,068 customers in Harlem, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side.

There was at least one death in New York City blamed on the storm, as a 60-year-old man was killed when he was crushed by a tree that fell on his car in Briarwood, Queens.

RELATED: Isaias' path of destruction

A tree crashed through the roof of a home and fell on a child's bedroom in Queens. She was just a few feet away but wasn't hurt.

In Brooklyn, a woman was struck in the head by a falling tree branch outside the Tilden Houses in Brownsville. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition.

There was also a partial building collapse involving the second and third floors of a building at the intersection of Bedford Avenue and North 6th Street.

An unknown number of residents were evacuated. There were no reports of injuries.

Heavy winds caused trees to topple in Brooklyn.

Cuomo blamed the power companies for failing to prepare adequately for the storm and its aftermath, and he is vowing an investigation.

ConEd said 260,000 customers were left without power after the storm throughout New York City and Westchester County. The company said half were restored by Thursday morning and the rest will be by Sunday night at the latest.

The company urged residents to stay away from downed wires and to not assume they are de-energized.

LONG ISLAND

As of Sunday, approximately 60,000 are without power on Long Island.

Some 88,000 people were without electricity on Long Island Saturday after Tropical Storm Isaias caused widespread damage, downing trees and power lines leaving almost half of PSEG's 1.1 million customers in the dark at the peak of the outages.

The hardest-hit area on the North Shore is Glen Cove, where half of residents still do not have power.

"We have not seen or heard a PSEG truck anywhere," Glen Cove resident Sandy Schlimer said. "My mom is 87. We're in a hot house. I'm all electric. I had to throw out everything in the fridge and the freezer this morning."

Schlimer's neighbor Amy Peters said that following Superstorm Sandy, homes on Harwood Drive East were without power for 14 days.

"We're praying that doesn't happen again," she said. "They keep saying tomorrow, tomorrow, and every day we check, and it's tomorrow again."

PSEG officials said 2,000 crews are working 16-hour shifts to restore power to customers on Long Island. Officials estimate 85% of customers will be back online by the end of the day Friday.

Kristin Thorne reports on the storm damage and cleanup efforts on Long Island.

The LIRR was back up and running with all service restored.

NEW JERSEY

Gov. Phil Murphy gave an update Sunday on those without power in the state.

As of 9 a.m., PSE&G says they've restored service to about 569,000, or 99%, of the 575,000 customers affected by Tropical Storm Isaias.

"Our top priority is restoring the approximately 5,000 customers still without power," the utility company said. "Bergen and Essex counties currently have the most outages."

On Saturday night, there were 43,486 outages statewide.

Even with PSE&G crews out in places like Hackensack, the tally of outages is climbing.

Even with PSE&G crews out in places like Hackensack, the tally of outages is climbing.

The utility now says 25,000 customers are without service. At 9 p.m. that number was 22,000.

29,000 JCP&L customers also remain without power.

On Friday, there were still more than 300,000 power customers in the dark in New Jersey. The vast majority are in North Jersey, which especially problematic during the pandemic when so many people are working from home.

The National Weather Service confirmed that two tornadoes touched down Tuesday - in Cape May County and in Ship Bottom on Long Beach island in Ocean County.

NJ Transit's Morris & Essex and Gladstone Branch remains suspended Friday as crews continue to repair extensive damage to signal systems and overhead wires, which power the trains. Once personnel clear the area and restore the wires, the infrastructure will have to undergo inspections before service can resume.

Isaias left behind a mess in New Jersey.

HUDSON VALLEY

More than 35,000 in Westchester are still without power as of Sunday, according to Con Edison.

Dozens of National Guard troops have been sent to Putnam County to help in the cleanup and to provide assistance to residents. They are meeting at the Paladin Center in Carmel and will hand out supplies to those in need or deliver them to residents stuck in their homes.

Marcus Solis reports on Gov. Cuomo activating the National Guard in Putnam County to help residents there.

Isaias brought periods of torrential rain in Rockland County, but it was the wind that caused the most damage there too, uprooting small trees and snapping branches on big ones.

Naveen Dhaliwal reports on the storm damage in Westchester.

CONNECTICUT

Over 164,000 customers still remain without power in Connecticut.

"Blame the General, don't blame the Troops," Gov. Ned Lamont said to residents on Saturday. "We are making slow progress. We are going to push this everyday until we get power back

Gov. Ned Lamont also gave an update via Twitter.

There is growing anger and frustration in Connecticut, where utility companies have hardly put a dent in the number of widespread outages from Tropical Storm Isaias.

There were more than 293,000 customers without electricity as of Saturday morning, and while the state's main utility Eversource estimates it will make significant progress by the end of the weekend, it doesn't believe it will have its restoration substantially completed until Tuesday.

Local officials have described the company's response to Isaias as an "epic failure," and the state is now investigating.

Lamont deployed the National Guard to help remove debris that is still blocking streets.

"We're going to be riding hard to make sure we get this done," he said. "I can tell you that Eversource maybe only had 450 line crews a few days ago. They'll have over 1,100 within the next 24 hours and I really want to see more progress."

Marcus Solis has more on the clean-up and recovery efforts from Isaias in Connecticut.

If you lost power for more than 48 consecutive hours, please fill out a claims form to cover spoiled food, medication or perishable commercial merchandise.

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