Last night's big storm soaked the region and left thousands of homes outside of NYC without power. In fact, there are some power outages in NJ that has left PATH service suspended (or maybe it's flooding?).
Wednesday's Wet Weather Leaves Power Outages, Flooding
Con Ed Brownouts Have Spread Across The Entire City
Con Ed is not having a fun time with this heat. Today the utility clocked the highest strain on our power grid ever (13,182 megawatts earlier this afternoon!) and along with it brownouts and a few straight up power outages across town. Though Con Ed told us this morning that the brownouts in Queens were finished we're hearing they never really stopped—and now the utility has started to reduce voltage in neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens Manhattan and Staten Island. Is a citywide blackout or brownout approaching?
It's The Hottest Day Of 2011: 103 Degrees At Central Park, Power Grid Strained
Congratulations! With temperatures hitting 103 degrees in Central Park (106 in Newark) it is officially the hottest day of the year—and the hottest. July 22. Ever. And you know what that means? Those power outages that Con Ed warned us about? They're heeeeerrrreee.
Con Ed Brownouts In Queens Are Over... For Now
Despite intense heat, Con Edison has so far managed to keep the power on (and the city's A/Cs running) with minimal trouble—but the day is young and those outages could still come. Last night, for instance, the demand for power was high enough that the power utility had to reduce power to 100,000 customers in Queens and Westchester. So while people there still had some power, they just didn't have much of it.
Con Ed Warns Of Scattered Outages As Heat Wave Continues
The heat "dome" keeps pushing the mercury up, and you know what that means: Con Edison is warning customers to expect scattered outages for the next few days. "This is Day 1 of a three-day battle for us," John Miksad, senior VP of Electric Operations says. How bad it is? Con Ed is forecasting that power usage today and tomorrow could break the company's all-time record. The previous high was 13,141 megawatts in August 2006.
Storm Causing Citywide Power Outages
Though it seems to have already passed, today's short storm caused a lot of damage. There are reports of multiple trees down on West 254th street in the Bronx, and Con Edison reports at least 1,000 without power across the city. Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens were all under severe thunderstorm warnings earlier this afternoon. Stay dry, folks! Update: Service has been shut down on the LIRR between Deer Park and Hicksville because of a downed tree on the tracks.
Cleaning Up After the Storm
Last night's storms provided a vivid light show and wreaked havoc in neighborhoods all across the city and Tri-State area. There are downed trees and power lines all over--crews are working on clean up and repairs.

