The Scarsdale Inquirer – Hometown newspaper of Scarsdale, New York 10583

 

Halloween snowstorm was more trick than treat

By ILENE NECHAMKIN

Mother Nature played an October surprise on the entire Northeastern United States last Saturday, with a heavy wet snow that caused massive power outages and hazardous road conditions. Snow started falling in Scarsdale late Saturday morning and continued until after midnight. Tree branches, still in full leaf, shattered from the weight of accumulated snow, taking down power lines as they fell. The village and surrounding area looked like a storm-devastated disaster area, with snapped branches, downed wires and swaths of yellow warning tape. A state of emergency was declared for Westchester County, as it contended with the freakish early storm.

The village got much more snow than expected, said assistant superintendent for public works Eric Gerringer Wednesday, about 6 inches, not the 1 or 2 inches predicted Friday. Plowing crews worked from noon or 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday — “We needed daylight to see what we were doing,” he explained — and debris removal began Sunday morning at 6. “We had a tree crew out working the whole time,” he said. “It was a double operation.” About 20 trees went down, he said, though the trees that lost only branches may require extensive pruning or removal, depending what the village’s consulting arborist recommends.

All the village’s equipment was deployed, Gerringer said, and whatever breakdowns occurred in the field “our central garage was able to fix and move them through.” Many trucks had been equipped with leaf boxes for the leaf collection program, he said, “and turned into plows. That hasn’t been done for 20 years!”

Gerringer said the department will focus on debris collection for the next two weeks. Homeowners should tie and bundle fallen branches on private property that are less than 3 inches in diameter and 5 feet long. The village will waive the dumping fee for yard waste for private contractors until Nov. 20, he said.

The downed branches complicated snow removal, he said. “There were at least 40 locations we couldn’t plow because the branches had fallen on wires,” he said. Crews “can’t go near any wires near fallen trees,” and must wait for Con Ed to cut the power before proceeding.

The village received over 360 calls about downed trees. Forty locations involved primary and secondary lines. Con Ed prioritizes restoration according to “how many households are out” on a particular line.

As many as 2,700 households had no power immediately after the storm, he said, with only 400 customers still out on Wednesday. Most, but not all, were restored by midnight Wednesday.

Though the incident command center “was not operational,” he said, the village coordinated its response with both the fire and police departments throughout the weekend.

Gerringer said that labor overtime costs ran about $35,000 for the storm, which created 1,200 tons of debris and $30,000 in tipping fees. (The per ton fee is $26.) Hurricane Irene, he said, generated only cleanup costs.

Meanwhile, the more seasonal leaf collection program has been suspended for a week and will resume in tandem with the cleanup. A decision whether to extend collection further into December will be made later, he said.

Scarsdale Fire Department Chief Thomas Cain said that firemen fielded 140 storm-related calls in the first 72 hours during and after the snowfall. “The overwhelming number had to do with wires down or burning wires,” he said, though there were some problems with automatic alarm systems. A falling tree struck an occupied car, but no one was hurt, he said. And the back canopy at the Crossway Firehouse collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Cain called in the volunteer storm squad and added a few men to different shifts.

Firefighters generally make the area around a fallen wire safe, Cain said. “If we have enough personnel, we stay and watch the area and divert traffic. But when we run out of resources, we tap off the area around the wire with barrier tape and make sure it’s visible.”

In the aftermath of the storm, many residents were dissatisfied, to say the least, with Con Edison, even for an unprecedented, surprise event. Many felt that the utility had learned nothing from Hurricane Irene. In Edgewood, a group of homeowners plunged into cold and darkness again, threatened to “Occupy Davis Park,” where conditions, they joked, could not be much worse than their homes.

Laura Wilker of Edgemont said that “a live, sparking, smoking, sizzling wire, a fire in our street,” wasn’t considered urgent by Con Ed. And there are 10 young children on her street.

“Many of us called and wrote Con Ed, police, fire, and Greenburgh officials. Police trucks and fire trucks came by,” she told the Inquirer. “They all said they were sharing information and we were told repeatedly we had been put on the priority list.” But whenever they called Con Ed, the representative said there was no record of a live wire.

“The police and fire told us they could do nothing without Con Ed; Con Ed told us that police and fire are able to proceed without them,” she said. (Eric Gerringer said the utility gave out inaccurate information to customers. Public works crews absolutely cannot proceed without an OK from Con Ed.)

“Here’s my guess of an explanation: We have a small street, and it’s a dead end,” Wilker said. “Only five houses lost electricity. So to Con Ed, we weren’t a priority.”

An elderly Fox Meadow couple was forced to leave home when power was not restored after two days and the interior temperature was 50 degrees. They took shelter at a Bronx hospice, one of the few facilities willing to accept them. Because the man is wheelchair bound and suffers with severely limited mobility from a brain tumor, they could not, as police officers recommended, simply take a taxicab to a hotel. “No one knows anything about what’s going on,” the woman said. Con Ed had projected power would be restored to the house by 11:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Although Con Ed has a priority program for seniors, it’s limited to those who use electrical life-sustaining equipment.

On Monday, village officials in Scarsdale and Greenburgh asked residents to forego trick or treating for safety’s sake. “There are power lines on the ground, which may be hidden by snow, leaves and downed trees. A number of public roads are still closed and some walkways have yet to be plowed. Con Ed and village personnel will work through the night utilizing various types of equipment, thus auto and pedestrian traffic should be kept to a minimum to allow for the work to occur safely,” advised assistant to the village manager Justin Datino in a robo-call and email blast to Scarsdale residents.

But the recursive chaos took its toll on everyone, work crews, village officials and residents, who wonder what’s next for an increasingly violent and unpredictable Mother Nature.


Read more local coverage of your hometown in this week’s issue of The Scarsdale Inquirer. Newsstand copies are available at several locations listed above, or subscribe today for convenient home delivery.



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NEWSSTAND LOCATIONS

CENTRAL AVENUE — EDGEMONT/HARTSDALE

7-11, 763 Central Avenue (at Mt Joy)   

Dairy Dell, 1 South Central Avenue (4 Corners)    


SCARSDALE VILLAGE

Candy ‘n Cards, 25 Spencer Place

DeCicco Family Markets, 58 East Parkway    


GARTH ROAD

7-11 Garth Road, 6 Garth Road and Popham    

Sol-La Gifts, 44 Garth Road    


BROOK STREET and POST ROAD, EASTCHESTER

Brook Street Bagel Shop, 102 Brook Street    

Lotto n Things, 820 Post Road    


HEATHCOTE

Big Top, 1465 Weaver Street    

5 Corners Stationers, 14 Palmer Avenue    

Gristedes, Golden Horseshoe Shopping Center

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November 4, 2011

…and in Edgemont

In the aftermath of Saturday’s freaky fall snowstorm, downed wires and trees made for treacherous road navigation and tricky trick-or-treating on Halloween. Out of Edgemont’s 2,900 homes, 151 were still without electricity on Wednesday afternoon; 41 were in the Greenville area and 110 in Old Edgemont. In Greenburgh, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner reported 263 homes still did not have electric power Wednesday night. “It's been a very frustrating experience for everyone,” he said.

Disruptions began on Sunday with 14 roads closed in the town of Greenburgh with 5,800 homes without power. Throughout the week Con Ed crews and Greenburgh’s highway department repaired wires and cleared trees blocking roads. Con Ed also distributed dry ice at the Midway Shopping Center in Edgemont on Tuesday to those without refrigeration.

Hundreds of Edgemont Halloween revelers ignored police Chief Joe DeCarlo’s warnings about trick-or-treating. DeCarlo said that while hazardous areas would be taped off, there was still considerable risk from falling branches. “The most prudent action is not to go out,” he said.

In light of ongoing weather-induced power outages that incur loss of productivity, financial problems for businesses, and local cleanup costs, members of the Greenburgh Town Board plan to discuss the possibility of burying vulnerable power lines underground whenever major state or county road work is being done. 

Feiner proposed that federal and state governments, as part of a stimulus job creation initiative, could provide local governments and Con Ed with financial help when roads are repaved and milled, and asked, “Is it more expensive not to put the power lines underground?”

—Debbie Anders

Marjorie Meiman photo

The corner of Carthage and Heathcote, Sunday, Oct. 30.