This latest from the Mayor’s press conference at 5:30 PM in the briefing room of the Office of Emergency Management.
- The worst of the storm is about to hit
- President Obama, Governor Cuomo are offering support
- The time has come and gone for you to evacuate
- Now you must stay indoors, the conditions outside are dangerous and will get worse
- We have gotten a lot of calls, mostly from Queens, they are mostly for downed trees. Do not call 911 for downed trees.
- We have seen flooding and power loss in the city, the vaste majority in Queens and Staten Island (7,000 customers already.)
- Con Ed has been doing outreach to its customers as a preventive measure, and it may be shutting some power down across the five boros
- There have been closures of roadways around the water, assume roads along the water will have big problems
- Most of the major bridges into Manhattan are being closed.
- There has been a partially collapsed crane on 57th St., and Seventh Avenue, and all the buildings around the area have been evacuated. One was a large hotel, we are sorry for the inconvenience. The construction area was an Extell Development property.
- Steam, water and gas have been shut down in the area
- A jogger was hit by a tree limb, but is in the hospital and OK.
- OEM is providing transportation and shelter for anyone who needs it
- The storm is moving faster than earlier, the city is still very much in the danger zone, roughly moving 30 mph rather than the 15 it was moving before.
- High wind warning in effect until Tuesday, 40 to 50 mph sustained, up to 70 mph gusts.
- Danger to power lines, motorists and anything outside
- The high point of the surge will be highest at roughly 8:15 PM, or 6:30 pm to 10:30 PM
- On Long Island Sound it will happen 10 PM to 2 AM, and that includes City Island and the Bronx
- The important thing is stay inside
- Avoid using elevators, use the stairs
- Stay away from windows, draw the drapes. One of the ground floor windows blew in at a city building.
- Our advice is try to relax and stay in.
- We would like to experience what we have so far, and that is no fatalities
- The city is open for business today and tomorrow, and city employees are supposed to go in
- Public transportation is shut down, and will remain closed through the day tomorrow. Have patience.
- Public schools and after school programs and parks are closed. Stay out of the parks because of falling tree limbs.
- Sanitation crews are collecting debris, DONT put out garbage.
- We have a recovery plan in place once the storm has passed. The MTA will get mass transit going again as soon as possible.
- The storm is here, it is going to get worse this evening.
- Stay inside, conditions are going to be very dangerous outside. Winds like this can pick up something and throw it at you. If you don’t need to be outside, don’t take the risk.
CEO at Con Ed, Kevin Burke
- Significant outages for customers with overhead service (about 7,500)
- Significant chance of major flooding in NYC. Downtown Manhattan, and parts of Brooklyn by Coney Island.
- Likely to shut down certain networks downtown, The Fulton Network, the Bowling Green Network, Broadway, the East RIver, and Brighton Beach. It’s largely to protect the equipment.
- We are looking throughout the city and other places where there is high voltage being supplied, and there are about 20 installations, which they will watch, and they may preemptively cut power to those locations. If we think water is going to get in we will shut those services off.
- We have shut off some of the steam system, and if it keeps flooding we might have to shut off all service below 14th Street.
- A little after 8 pm this evening we are looking for the worst of it.
- If you see a wire down, assume it is energized, DON’T TOUCH IT, DON’T GO NEAR IT. Call 1-800-CONEDISON.
