Alex Martínez spent a bitter night, when around 3 in the morning without warning the electricity went out and his air conditioning stopped working,
“Terrible, that is, waking up bathed in sweat, without being able to breathe because the air becomes very heavy too, I made the mistake of opening the windows and all the humidity got in,” Martínez said.
Like Martínez, at least 500 residents of the same neighborhood between 34th Street and 31st Avenue in Astoria were left without power.
In a statement, the electric company informed its customers that it was due to the damage of several cables that needed repairs… little consolation for those affected.
“Both water and energy are vital because you are still hot, no one can live with heat, I don’t know how they will live in extreme places, but here in NY you are used to having air conditioning, but the truth is horrible,” added Martínez.
According to Con Edison, due to the intense heat these days, there was possibly an energy overload due to electrical consumption, especially from air conditioners. These, when working at their maximum, overload the resistance of the cables, causing for that matter another blackout in the Bronx that on Thursday afternoon left more than 4,000 people without power.
The electric company has asked all its customers to conserve energy to avoid similar blackouts in other areas…since the intense heat in NY will continue in the coming days.
“I agree, because to be sure we don’t suffer from the heat, we have to save energy in the system. That if we are going to wash, it is washed early in the morning, and if it is cooking too,” said neighbor Rosa .
“And try as little as possible to turn on blenders, have at least one air conditioner on, and keep the lights on and not be with cell phones charging them, use a computer, that is overloading the energy and that is why blackouts are provided,” added the neighbor.
In Astoria we could see several electrical engineers trying to repair the affected cables, however, due to the torrential rain, their work was affected since the cables are underground and the accesses were literally flooded, with the water up to the level of the street. Practically impossible to carry out the works.
At times, when the rains subsided, they continued with the repairs and little by little the clients recovered the electricity.
And most in the afternoon have already recovered the electrical service.
The reason they are asking to lower the consumption is because ConEdison lowered the voltage to 8%, until the repair work is finished.
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