NEW YORK, NY (October 10, 2025) — Con Edison is mobilizing in advance of the forecasted Nor’easter, augmenting its staff with 900 mutual aid workers for emergency response.
High winds, heavy rain and rising tides are expected to hit New York City and Westchester County on Sunday. The prolonged rainfall, saturated soil, and full foliage can cause trees and branches to fall onto power lines and bring them down, causing customers to lose service and creating a safety hazard.
The company urges members of the public to stay safe. “Stay away from downed wires. They may be live,” Con Edison said in a statement.
The Nor’easter may cause coastal flooding. In the event of major flooding, the company would have to wait for flood waters to recede before workers enter some facilities to assess damage.
Crews are ready to respond to keep service reliable during the storm, which could bring coastal flooding and strong winds to the region.
Under Con Edison’s restoration plan, the priority for restoration is critical customer facilities that have an impact on the public, such as mass transit, hospitals, police and fire stations, and sewage and water-pumping stations.
Crews will then prioritize repairs that provide power to the largest numbers of customers as quickly as possible, then move on to restore smaller groups and individual customers.
Customers can sign up for text alerts by texting REG to 688-243 and following the prompts. They can also report outages and check service restoration status at conEd.com/reportoutage, with Con Edison’s mobile app for iOS or Android devices, or by calling 1-800-752-6633.
Customers who report outages will receive updates from Con Edison with their estimated restoration times as they become available. Information on outages and restoration times is also available on the Con Edison outage map.
Con Edison offered several safety tips for the public ahead of the Nor’easter:
- Do not go near downed wires. Treat downed wires as if they are live. Never attempt to move them or touch them with any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by tree limbs, leaves or water.
- Report all downed wires to Con Edison and your local police department immediately. If a power line falls on your car while you’re in it, stay inside the vehicle and wait for emergency personnel.
- Exercise extreme caution when entering flooded basements. Water that comes into contact with energized electrical equipment can create dangerous conditions and cause serious injury.
- Members of the public should also avoid transformers that are brought to the ground. The transformers are gray metal drums attached to the wires and poles.
- Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing and using a portable generator. Never plug a generator into a wall unit, use it indoors, or set it up outdoors near open home windows or air-handling vents.
- If your power goes out, disconnect or turn off appliances that would otherwise turn on automatically when service is restored. If several appliances start up at once, the electric circuits may overload.
- Charge your cellphones and other mobile devices while you have power.
- Make sure your flashlights and any battery-operated radios are working. Have a supply of extra batteries.
For more storm tips and preparation, go to www.conEd.com.
To ensure public safety, Con Edison may guard downed wires until crews make repairs. Company personnel may be in unmarked cars but will always have Con Edison identification.
The company is in contact with New York City Emergency Management and the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services to coordinate storm response if needed.
This article was drafted with the aid of Grok, an AI tool by xAI, under the direction and editing of Robert Cox to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.