70th Precinct Readies to Deal With Power Outages

70th Precinct Commanding Officer Eric Rodriguez continued to keep Ditmas Park residents informed of developing situations in the neighborhood Wednesday through a series of emails. 

Issues addressed included power outages through the neighborhood, fallen trees, dealing with finding fuel and Halloween safety. His notes can be found in full below: 

Dear Community Members,

We just want to take a moment to update you on conditions within the confines of the 70th Precinct. 

There is approximately 22 trees down blocking streets in the area.Some traffic lights are out and there are still wires down is the area. These conditions still make parts of the area dangerous to navigate. Also, there are areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn closed down due to devastating effects caused by Hurricane Sandy.  These closed areas are causing major traffic backups. 

Ocean Parkway going toward Manhattan is moving very slowly. Power is still out in many areas of NYC. As we found out last night, it is possible that con Edison will turn power off in our area at times also. We will have extra personnel at night to handle some issues that arise from these outages.    

We are aware that today is Halloween and kids become anxious to have some fun, but with some of the conditions we spoke about, the safety of all members of the community are our number one priority. These conditions make it much more dangerous for children to walk around. We are attempting to get everything as close to normal as possible and will continue to update you as events unfold. 

We once again, Thank You all for your understanding and we have all of you who were effected or have family and friends effected in our thoughts and prayers. We too are assisting some of our personnel who has been severely effected by this storm. 

We really appreciate you kind words and support. 

If you have an emergency call 911.  All other issues, Please call 311. 

He wrote again Wednesday afternoon with this information:

I know we sent out a message recently, however after surveying the area again our major issue that we want you to be aware of is dealing with fuel. Gas stations are being sought out all over the tri-state area from many people. 

We understand the need to get around, however some consumers are double and triple parking causing back ups. Please try to not drive if you do not have to and please understand we need to have traffic flow to get our communities back to normal sooner. Elected Officials are working with us on many of these issues and we thank them.    

Also; there are announcements in the last hour regarding Subway and Bus Service.  Please check for this information through your media outlets. Thanks again for your cooperation. 

Eric Rodriguez

70th Precinct Commanding Officer