As Many As 100,000 Without Power in Queens

By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK – A blackout affecting an estimated 100,000 people in Queens – which entered its fifth day Friday – is 10 times worse than the power company had previously reported, Con Edison said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking on his weekly radio show, said he was "annoyed" by the new estimate – 25,000 customers without power – because "we might have thrown more resources into the area." Bloomberg later made the "100,000 people" estimate at a news conference. The term "customer" can refer to more than one household, or even an entire apartment building.

"The sad thing is, this shouldn’t have happened," Bloomberg said. "We don’t know why, but the most important thing – make sure nobody dies or gets hurt and then help Con Ed to get it back up."

"And then we’ll go and try to figure out why and point fingers and beat people over the head and all that sort of thing," added the mayor.

Con Edison said its revised number followed a block-by-block cable inspection in northwest Queens on Thursday night. It said previous estimates came from the number of customers who called to complain.

Similarly, Con Edison said Friday that 35,000 customers in Westchester County – not the 25,000 reported earlier – lost power after Tuesday’s storm. About 6,000 were still out on Friday morning.

The blackouts started Monday in a handful of neighborhoods in Queens. Two LaGuardia Airport terminals lost power Monday night and again on Tuesday.

Hundreds of businesses have since been idle, and the city’s jail complex on Rikers Island had to operate on backup generators. Some building elevators were not running and traffic lights at some intersections were not working.

"This is outrageous," City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. said. "When is this going to be fixed? If it’s going to be days, they should tell people it is going to be days."

The blackouts were at their worst on Wednesday, when 10 of the 22 feeder cables that supply the area with power were down simultaneously. The temperature had hit 100 degrees in the neighborhood the day before.

Consolidated Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the power company was making every effort to get the situation fixed but couldn’t estimate when that might happen. He said the company didn’t know why things went wrong.

"Chances are fair, but not firm, that it was heat related, but right now that is just a hypothesis," he said.

Bloomberg demanded that the utility investigate and deliver a report on the cause within two weeks.

That was little consolation for Gianni DellaPolla, 26, a baker at Gian & Piero Bakery.

"We probably lost $25,000 in business in three days," DellaPolla told the Daily News. "Everything like wedding cakes, eggs, creams, we had to throw all that out."

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Associated Press Writers David B. Caruso and Sara Kugler contributed to this report.