Con Edison warned that with impending heat, more blackouts may take place in New York City this summer.
“We expect that there could be service outages — those things happen during heat waves,” the power company’s chief spokesman, Mike Clendenin, said told PIX11.
According to the National Weather Service, New York City could see a heatwave starting later this week.
But this time, Con Edison said it’s “prepared” to take care of the blackout, though the company is still scratching its head over the exact cause of Saturday’s widespread power outage in Manhattan. The company on Monday was looking into the incident.
“We are very, very focused on examining exactly what transpired and caused that outage,” Clendenin said of the probe. “There’s a lot of patience and poise that New Yorkers displayed during the outage itself. The same kind of patience and diligence is going to be needed as engineers and experts dive into the date and actually analyze how equipment tripped off, or what went wrong, that led to the large outage.”
The blackout reportedly impacted more than 70,000 New Yorkers.
In preparation of future blackouts, FEMA.gov is offering preparation tips. They suggest people take stock of items that require electricity, pick up batteries or other alternatives that will keep devices charged, determine how long your phone will last, and purchase candles and flashlights with extra batteries.
When faced with a blackout FEMA says to keep the fridge and freezer closed, use non-perishable food, check on your neighbors, and to turn off or disconnect appliances and electronics.
To keep you safe after a power outage, toss out any food that has been susceptible to 40 degrees or warmer for two hours or more. Check your food and make sure, there’s nothing unusual about it.
