UPDATE: Power Slowly Returning in West Harrison

The lights are slowly beginning to come back on in certain areas of Harrison that have been in the dark after power losses that have lasted almost 24 hours in some areas.

Con Edison is now reporting that less than 43 homes in Harrison are without power, almost all of them in West Harrison. At one point Tuesday, nearly 300 homes in West Harrison alone were in the dark.

The largest affected area is near the intersection of Madison Street and Columbus Avenue in West Harrison, where 23 are still without power. Con Edison estimates restoration for that area by 10 a.m. 

Downtown, seven more homes remain without power near Genesee Trail. Con Edison is estimating Wednesday evening that the power will be restored to that area by 8 a.m. Thursday.

Although Con Edison cannot confirm exactly what caused the outages in Harrison at this point, there is a good chance it was heat-related.

"During the heat wires can get warm and overheat and catch on fire and there could be equipment problems in the area," said Alfonso Quiroz, a spokesperson for Con Edison. "We've been asking our customers to try and conserve."

Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh said on Tuesday that the town will not open cooling centers, but the Mintzer Center in West Harrison and Harrison Community Center on Halstead Avenue would both be air-conditioned and open to the public. Although Thursday is expected to bring a break from the heat, temperatures are still expected to reach the high 80s, according to the National Weather Service.

Con Edison is asking those who still have power to maximize the use of fans and keep air-conditioning units turned down whenever possible. 

Outage numbers for Wednesday within Harrison were substantially higher than they had been on Tuesday, possibly the result of two days of mid-90s temperatures.

Quiroz said that with more people in the area, it is becoming more important to conserve energy whenever possible - especially when temperatures are this high.

"You have to remember that there are more people moving into Harrison and Westchester every day," he said. "When it gets hot, everyone puts air-conditioners on in every single room of the home, so that coupled with the heat and with everything else can cause problems."

Click here for a map of outages in the area, or click here to report a service problem.