Con Ed Lied To Electeds About Brooklyn Power Outages, Reps Say

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Con Edison lied to two elected officials about power returning to a Brooklyn block, not knowing that the pair had been out themselves climbing stairwells that were still dark as they were told the lights were back on, the representatives said.

In doing so, the utility endangered New Yorkers who remained in need of emergency services they had not received, the representatives said.

Brooklyn Assembly Member Diana Richardson and state Senator Zellnor Myrie said Tuesday that roughly 500 Hawthorne Street residents have been without full power and emergency services for two days, all while Con Edison repeatedly promised power would return within hours or claimed it already had been.

"We have been lied to by Con Ed," said Myrie. "Every update is an update of false information."

"Where is the emergency response from the city of New York? It is nowhere," Richardson added. "But it is hard for the city to conduct proper response when Con Edison is reporting misinformation."

The Hawthorne Street outage occurred as extreme heat and severe storms pounded the city streets and more than 14,000 Brooklyn residents lost power.

A Con Edison spokesperson told Patch 1,699 Brooklynites remained without power as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, but Myrie and Richardson suggested the numbers may be larger than reported.

"We've been told time and time again the power has been restored and that is not true," Myrie said. "Either you don't know what you're doing or you're lying."

Dozens of Hawthorne Street residents joined their representatives to demand answers and share stories of days spent without air conditioning, working refrigerators or the means to go outside.

Low power took out the elevator at 265 Hawthorne St. Sunday night and stranded 79-year-old Irene Radix and her husband Seaton in their fourth floor apartment for two days, the couple said.

"The first name is good," Seaton said of the $13 billion company that supplies New York City's power. "They con everybody."

Viola Campry became teary as she recalled how heat has mounted in her home to the point where she feared she needed to be hospitalized.

"We were chosen to suffer again," Campry said. "I would like to know why this area was chosen."

"It's black already," Seaton replied.

Myrie confirmed that the Brooklyn block was a load shed area, where power is deliberately decreased to prevent a citywide overload and possible blackout. This tactic was used over the weekend in outer Brooklyn and areas of Queens that Myrie and Richardson argued share a common characteristic.

"If the demographic of this community was very different the response would have been different," said Richardson.

"You don't see this kind of inaction in other communities," said Myrie. "It is only in communities that look like ours."

Patch reached out to Con Edison for a response and will update this story upon receipt.