Outrage Over Outages in Croton

It's very scary walking along Croton-on-Hudson's Brook Street. Families with small children say they don't know if the wires strewn across their street are live or not. People who live on this block say ConEd won't begin fixing the wires until a tree service comes to remove the huge tree that caused electrical poles to snap in half.

Residents say they have been dealing with this nightmare since Saturday afternoon. Those who live at the end of the street can't get their cars past the tangled wires. "This is absolutely ridiculous," said a Brook Street resident. "It looks like a warzone here… We don't even know if the wires are live or not."

After Patch called ConEd about the situation, one of the utility company's trucks came along and parked in front of the street. We asked the ConEd worker if the wires on Brook Street were still live. "We don't know yet. They shouldn't be. They've been laying there for a couple days," said the worker.

Residents say one of the poles had been previously damaged by a truck backing up into it. They say they told ConEd inspectors that the pole was going to fall, but the utility company did nothing to fix the problem.

Brook Street resident Ann Edwards had to take the day off without pay today because of the nightmare on her street. She was with her two children and granddaughter who just turned one-year-old. "The blue collar people who work themselves to the bone—they're the last to be taken care of," said Edwards. "We're human beings just like everybody else."

The street has become a spectacle. Dozens of cars continue to drive by—to gawk and take pictures. One resident said they had to call the police because onlookers had broken the police tape—warning people of the hazardous situation.

"We don't specifically know if the wires are live on Brook Street. We're assuming there are live wires on Brook Street," said Croton Mayor Leo Wiegman. "There was a (ConEd) supervisor there this morning. He should be back with crews shortly to begin work."