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Jul 21, 2006 12:07 pm US/Eastern
Bloomberg 'Annoyed' At False Con Ed Estimates
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Con Edison's estimate of how many were without power in Queens turned out to be almost ten times too small.
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Until this morning, Mayor Bloomberg said he was satisfied with Con Ed's response to outages in Queens.
CBS
Mayor Bloomberg is changing his tune when it comes to Con Ed.
All week, Con Ed insisted that only 1900 customers were without power in Queens. Today they announced the number is ten times that – 25,000 customers – and even more could be affected.
Our reaction was that we certainly, as we always are, have a big job ahead of us," said Con Edison Spokeman Michael Clendenin. "Our focus all week has been on the primary high-voltage cables that serve the community."
As Con Ed was under reporting the outages, the mayor said he was satisfied with the way Con Ed was handling the power.
"Con Ed is doing at the moment what we want them to do, focusing on getting everybody back up," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
When the real magnitude of the problem became clear today, he changed his message.
"I'm annoyed that their estimate of 1,000 or 2,000, let's say was one-tenth of what their estimate is now," the Mayor said on his weekly radio address.
"We might have thrown more resources into the area."
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
