WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. January 19,2006 UPDATED January 20, 2006, 8:50 A.M. E.S.T.: The Con Edison Communications Center reported to WPCNR Thursday evening at 11:15 P.M. that the company has only 9,000 households to restore in Westchester County down from 15,000 as of 1 P.M this afternoon. No figure was available for White Plains customers.

The spokesperson told WPCNR they have restored power to 31,000 customers since the "Big Blow" of Wednesday morning swhooshed through Westchester County at just below Category 1 Hurricane force, with windgusts up to the 70 mile per hour mark.

Earlier today, Joe Petta, a spokesperson for Con Edison confirmed  that Con Ed has brought in a large number of crews from upstate and surrounding areas because of the serious nature of the storm damage, which Petta described to WPCNR as "unprecedented."

Asked whether this indicated that Con Edison was inadequately staffed to handle the such widespread damage, Petta said, "We believe we are adequately staffed. This storm was unprecedented." He said the company called in Con Edison crews from "other service areas" and other companies, just as occurred in emergencies elsewhere in the country. Asked if Con Ed also pulled in out of area crews to handle last Saturday evening's wind and rain damage, Petta said "Yes," and he confirmed to WPCNR that Con Ed asked for these crews to come back for Wednesday's massive repairs.

Meanwhile, as of 5 P.M. Thursday afternoon the Battle Hill Houses apartments filled with senior citizens was being powered by a rented generator brought in by the landlord and efforts were being made to get the heat going in the building. That power is now reported back on as of 6:30 P.M. according to a resident.

 Paul Wood of the Mayor's Office said the building was privately owned, and that it was the landlord responsibility to notify Con Edison there were persons using health-related devices that ran on electricity living in the building. Mr. Petta told WPCNR that Con Edison has lists of buildings which need to be restored first in outages for specifically that reason: persons living there need electricity for life support apparatus. The rest of Battle Hill as of 5 P.M. appeared to this reporter to have electricity restored.