Friday, May 24, 2013

Roosevelt Island Power Outage This Morning For Manhattan Park, Octagonand Portions Of Westview - Con Ed Responding To Outage Reports OEM

Getting reports from residents of a power outage at the north end of Roosevelt Island including the Octagon, Manhattan Park and portions of Westview.

NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) tweets.
A reader reports:
My husband called Con Ed. Power issue affects 625, Octagon and Manhattan Park. There is a problem with the feeder that provides power to those buildings on the island. According to Con Edison, this issue should be resolved by 11 am.
From another resident:
Note buildings like 40 river are required to have back up lighting in stair wells in case electricity is lost. 40 river does not have such back up lights installed. Stairwells pitch black. They should bring the building up to fire code standards.
UPDATE 9:15 AM:
Resident Lynn Strong-Shinozaki reports:
There is some belief that the Blackout is related to the fire on the Koch bridge and/or related to flooding with the power station or both. Students are at ps/is 217 are being given the day off as well as some of the Childschool students are being sent home. We have asked that they consider using sports park as a place for people to go if the do not resolve this quickly. They are in the process of evaluating the 2/4 River Road for the needs of the seniors and disabled. Do we know who might need to be checked in the other buildings? We hope they can set up temp. charging places... the power is also out at the RIOC office.
Robert K adds:
The south tram is also out of service right now; the expected crowds are forming. (Unsure if this is separate from the power outage or in response to con Ed conservation request)
From Nikki Leopold of Island Kids:
TO ACCOMMODATE THOSE WHO ARE AFFECTED BY THE POWER OUTAGE

ISLAND KIDS WILL BE OPEN ALL DAY FOR OPEN PLAY STARTING AT 10:00.

THIS IS FREE OF CHARGE

PLEASE NOTE THAT SPACE IS LIMITED SO PLEASE ONLY COME IF YOU ARE IN A BUILDING WITHOUT POWER

WE WILL HAVE WATER AND SNACKS AVAILABLE
The address is 536 Main Street in the courtyard behind 510 and 540 Main Street under the ramp.
Update 10:10 - According to Roosevelt Island Operating Corp President Charlene Indelicato, four out of five Con Ed feeder cables serving Roosevelt Island are out. Ms Indelicato urges residents to limit non essential electricity uses so that the fifth feeder cable does not go out as well.

Update 11:35 AM - After briefing by OEM, Con Ed and other emergency personnel, Ms Indelicato reports no change in power outage status but urges residents Not To Flush Toilets until power restored. The next update from RIOC will be at 3 pm

UPDATE 12:50 PM - Press Release from Con Ed earlier this morning:
Con Edison is asking customers on Roosevelt Island to conserve electricity due to problems on electrical equipment serving this area.

The company implemented voltage reduction as a precaution to protect equipment and maintain service as company crews work to repair the problem.

Con Edison is asking customers on Roosevelt Island not to use appliances such as washers, dryers, and other energy-intensive equipment and to turn off lights and televisions when not needed until the equipment problems are resolved.

Customers can report outages and check service restoration status at www.coned.com/reportoutage or by calling 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). When reporting an outage, customers should have their Con Edison account number available, if possible, and report whether their neighbors also have lost power. Customers who report outages will be called by Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available.

The equipment problems on Roosevelt Island have no effect on the rest of the Con Edison system. Con Edison will provide updates to affected customers both directly and through the media as the situation warrants. The company is in constant communication with the New York City Office of Emergency Management.
Con Ed outage map states that there are 4 Roosevelt Island outages affecting 26 customers with an estimated resumption of service at 5 PM. No idea how they came up with only 26 customers affected when there is no power in the Octagon, Manhattan Park and Westview buildings with more than 2 thousand total apartments.

Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 Principal Mandana Beckman reported:
There continues to be no power at school. This morning the students were relocated to Good Shepard Church. We plan to remain there for the day but will walk back to the school for dismissal. We will dismiss students from the school at 2:50pm unless parents decide to pick up their children earlier. All of our staff made it to work and the few students that remain are busy.
Rabbi Zalman Duchman adds:
Chabad Lubavitch of Roosevelt Island is going to host a special Shabbat dinner tonight for all those effected by the blackout.

Contact Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Duchman via email Nechama@RIJewish.org or call 212.652.5660 for info and RSVP

Tonight, 7:30 pm at 425 Main St.

Please visit elderly and homebound neighbors to make sure they are okay.
UPDATE 1:25 - Bright Horizons Pre-School at the Octagon sent out this message to parents:
Dear Families,
While Bright Horizons does have power the building does not. The center is connected to the water supply pumps which are not operational. As the day goes on the supply of water is being reduced to the classrooms. The estimated time for power to be returned to the building is late afternoon / early evening. As per licensing we can not operate the center without running water. We are asking families to pick up no later then 3:00pm. We do apologize for the inconvenience. For the health and safety of the children and faculty we can not remain open without water.

UPDATE 3:10 PM - Receiving reports from Octagon residents that power is back in their building. One resident adds that according to Octagon building management:
We were asked by Con Ed to try to use minimal power as only one "grid" is up at the moment. If it gets overloaded we might loose power again. We will try to minimize usage in other areas of the building.
UPDATE 9:20 PM - Power restored - more info here.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 7:52:00 AM

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