Day Three: Majority of New Rochelle Still Without Power

On the third day after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the Hudson Valley, the majority of New Rochelle's resident woke up again with no power.

As of Thursday morning, there were 18,362 customers out of almost 29,000 customers who did not have electricity.

The City of New Rochelle issued an advisory that said Con Edison has projected that full restoration of power to all customers will take more than a week. The immediate priority is schools, nursing homes, and other facilities that serve vulnerable populations. While service repairs will occur on a rolling basis, the City advises residents to expect the worst and plan accordingly. 

Con Ed is providing dry ice Thursday at Yonkers Raceway and at the IBM Complex, 200 Business Park Drive in Armonk.

A shelter remains open at Albert Leonard Middle School, 25 Gerada Lane, and the Hugh Doyle Senior Center is now open, but is not offering meals. The New Rochelle Public Library is open until 6 p.m.

The City said Road clearance work continues, and when there are road conditions that the City can address on its own, they do so. However, Mayor Bramson said the City's crews cannot remove fallen trees touching wires until Con Edison acts first, and Con Ed's field resources in the region are still stretched thin. Utility mutual aid crews are arriving, and the pace of progress should accelerate.

The same scene repeats itself all around the city: Where there are trees still down, there are wires involved, waiting for ConEd crews to remove them.

The downtown area, including New Roc City, is active with stores lit up and plenty of people walking around. Since the public schools are closed through the week, Barbara Davis, the library's community relations coordinator, said the facility will offer activities for children and electricity and heat for those needing to recharge their cellphone batteries and warm up.

Leaving the downtown area, particularly driving along much of North Avenue in the Iona College area, there are few functioning street lights. Classes at the college were canceled through the week because much of the campus is without power.

For more cancellations, go here.