White Plains, NY – Assemblymember Amy R. Paulin (D-Scarsdale) and Michael J. Cusick (D-Staten Island) convened a public hearing on Monday to examine the response of utilities companies to the winter snowstorms that slammed into the Hudson Valley in March and left hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without power for as many as ten days.

Winter Storm Riley hit New York State on Friday, March 2 with wind gusts between 50 and 80 mph, and a combination of rain and snow. Over 500,000 customers lost power as a result of the storm, with the vast majority of outages occurred in the Hudson Valley (including Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, and Westchester counties). A mere five days later, the region was hit with another nor’easter, Winter Storm Quinn, with high winds and over 15 inches of snow falling in the Hudson Valley. The delays in power restoration were extensive, with thousands of customers who had lost their power during Riley still without electricity for days after Quinn.

Assemblymembers Paulin and Cusick and other members of their committees heard directly from representatives of these utilities, including Con Edison, the New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG), Central Hudson Gas & Electric, and PSEG Long Island, on how they had planned for these storms in terms of operations, staffing, and communications, how that preparation impacted their respective storm responses and their abilities to coordinate with municipalities to restore power, and how the results of these storm events would influence their planning for future weather events.

The Committees also heard testimony from the Public Service Commission, the state regulatory body that has conducted its own review of storm response over the previous two months. Finally, the Committees heard from representatives from County and municipal governments, including Westchester County Executive George Latimer, Westchester County Legislator Michael Kalplowitz, and White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, who had produced their own review, in cooperation with local elected officials throughout the County, of the performance of the utilities companies and made recommendations for improvement.

Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D-Scarsdale) said: “These storms were extremely challenging in terms of their damage and close proximity in timing. We are all invested in Con Ed and NYSEG’s success in circumstances like these. However, I am alarmed that so many of the issues raised today were also raised six years ago after Superstorm Sandy. The problems we heard about today included a mutual aid system for staffing that has consistently failed to deliver for storms of this magnitude covering large portions of the northeast; a cycle of confusion between the utilities and municipalities on the allocation of damage assessment, cut and clear, and linemen crews on any given day; and poor communication with the general public, including error-prone outage maps, frequent head-scratching robocalls where the utility seemed unaware if the customer they were calling had power or not, and misinformation shared by staff on the ground that exacerbated customer frustration during a very trying time. The legislature, the Public Service Commission, and the utilities need to learn the lessons of what went wrong in March and apply them moving forward so we’re not repeating this pattern for future major storms.”

Assemblymember Michael Cusick (D-Staten Island) said: "We heard compelling testimony today on the response time it took to restore power to the residents of Hudson Valley, during the winter storms in March. This public hearing brought to light the flaws that need to be addressed by the utilities' response to the power outage, and it also served as a platform to address how to avoid detrimental situations of this nature in the future. With the unpredictable changes in the weather patterns, it is imperative that our state’s agencies have adequate equipment and staffers to be able to address outages efficiently and effectively. The Legislature is committed to working with our agencies to brainstorm strategic plans to avoid prolonged outages if, and when, a storm happens. "