WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. By John F. Bailey. Exclusive Interview With the Commissioner of Public Works, Bud Nicoletti July 24, 2006: Joseph “Bud” Nicoletti, Commissioner of Public Works of White Plains told WPCNR Monday afternoon that recovery efforts to clear away debris is still continuing and will do so for another week. Mr. Nicoletti reported that very shortly after the July 18 storm ended, he and Police Chief James Bradley personally mapped out the streets that the city needed to open first, to clear roads for emergency vehiclesbeginning after midnight Wednesday morning after “The Mystery Storm” had hit at 10 P.M., and ravaging the Highlands, Gedney Farms & Meadows, Hillair Circle, Rosedale, Saxon Woods, and Haviland Manor in the city until little before midnight.
Nicoletti said he personally toured city shortly after the storm hit and determined the extent of the damage. He reports that he was able to mobilize 5 City crews prepared to clear trees blocking city streets compared to 2 Con Ed Line Crews the first two days and occasionally a third line crewthe first two days of the storm. Had Con Ed responded with more line crews the city streets could have been opened sooner with the implication power could have been back on faster with more crews. Nicoletti estimated there were between 500 and 600 trees downed.
“We mounted two shifts a day, immediately, 70 on the day shift and about half that on the night shift, and we continued to work Saturday and Sunday, working around rain storms, working 10 hours each day. You can’t get blood out of a stone. This is a marathon not a sprint. (On Wednesday and Thursday) We’re working at the pace of Con Ed too, as fast as they could disconnect the lines, we’re hard on their heels to take the trees away,” Nicoletti described the last five days of DPW activity with Con Edison.
Would you say the DPW had more crews to remove the trees than Con Ed had crews to turn off the power, WPCNR asked the Commissioner, “Oh, by far,” the Commissioner responded, “Con Ed had one or two or sometimes three line crews on its part (for the entire city). The minimum number of crews we had out was four to five. I know we were always manning 4 to 5 with aerial crews, ground crews. Each crew had a loader, dump trucks, chain saws. When Con Ed told us the electricity was off, we would remove the trees and chop them up, and move them over to the side of the road, because we had multiple road closings. hen we would go on to the next one.”
WPCNR was informed that more crews were brought by Con Edison on Friday and Saturday. Exact numbers of line crews from Con Edison at any given time in White Plains were not made available to WPCNR by Con Edison Media Relations at any time.
WPCNR asked how he assessed the state of the city at the present time:
“The roads are cleared. That’s our top priority that the roads are not blocked.”
