Light at the End of the Tunnel

The worst blackout to hit the area in at least 20 years will end Friday night, according to Con Edison. 

Last weekend's storm slowed travel, destroyed property and left some without power for almost a week. At one point 173,000 Con Edison customers lost power as a result of the storm.

Workers were brought in from as far away as Wisconsin and Georgia to combat the massive outages.

"It was the worst storm we've seen since 1985," said Sarah Banda, a spokesperson for Con Edison. "We were doing our very best."

But some disagree. People were understandably frustrated as the blackout reached days five and six.

"How stupid can they be?" asked Ada Angarano when several of her neighbors were still without power on Thursday.

Some residents have complained that negligence on the part of Con Edison months, even years, before this storm led to some of the blackouts. Others have called the company disorganized and unprepared.

Several Harrison residents asked the town board to send Con Edison a formal complaint at Thursday's board meeting.

Although Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh did not dismiss that possibility publicly, she didn't appear to be in a hurry to condemn Con Edison.

"Unless you drove through those streets, you wouldn't realize the damage," she said.

She had a point.

High winds sometimes prevented workers from even reaching wires on Sunday. Once that subsided, some roads were still impassable early in the week. Large trees had to be moved before wires could even be reached in some areas.

"It was difficult work because at the height of the storm there was a very, very, dangerous condition," said Harrison acting Commissioner of Public Works Anthony Robinson. "For our guys, and the police and fire departments and all those guys (Con Edison), to go out there during that time was exemplary. I've got nothing but praise for all of them."

Almost all of Harrison's public officials have voiced their support of the work done by Con Edison this week. Although not everyone would agree, it is hard to look past the difficulty of restoring power to 173,000 people.

"I think that Con Ed has been doing an excellent job," acting Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said earlier this week. "The amount of damage the town has incurred has been devastating."

Town officials said that they will evaluate how they handled this week's blackout and use that to prepare for another one.

"There are always ways to improve," Walsh said on Thursday.

As the final homes affected by the blackout are hopefully restored tonight, maybe the anger will subside - maybe.

Until the next storm.