Over 130 Baysiders Lose Power Amid Heat Wave, Power Outage Warnings

QUEENS, NY — Over 130 people in a corner of Bay Terrace were left without electricity amid a heat wave Thursday, hours after a city utility company warned of outages.

The outage, on Estates Lane and a couple side streets including Bonnie Lane and Michael Court, left 131 households without electricity, according to a map maintained by Con Edison, the utility company that operates the city's power grid.

Neighbors lost power about 2 p.m., but as of 3:30 p.m. the cause of the outage remained unknown since crews were still making their way to the area, Con Ed spokesperson Allan Drury told Patch.

Drury, though, said the outage was "probably" caused by thunderous rainstorm that swept through Queens this afternoon, causing outages in other parts of the borough too.

Con Ed's website suggests power should be restored by 5:30 p.m., though estimates in other neighborhoods have been pushed back. Drury said the estimate was an "early" prediction of when power will be restored.

The outage comes hours after Con Ed urged Queens residents to conserve energy in an effort to prevent blackouts during a days-long heat wave.

About 555 city facilities, 90 of which were reportedly just added by Mayor Eric Adams, are also lowering energy consumption under a citywide program to avoid overloading the electrical grid.

As temperatures climb into the 90s for the second day in a row, residents left without air-conditioning can stop by one of the city's official cooling centers — including nearby sites like the Whitestone Library and Selfhelp Clearview.

The city's heat wave mirrors soaring temperatures across the nation, where hundreds of millions of people are living under heat warnings.

Climate change is likely to blame for record-breaking heat waves, experts told ABC News, and major American cities aren't prepared to deal with the combined climate-induced consequences of blackouts and heat waves, research suggests.

Patch editor Nick Garber contributed to this report.