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Salt-Laced Meltwater Blamed as Hundreds Still Without Power in Brooklyn and Queens

With temperatures dangerously low, Con Edison is fixing salt-damaged equipment.

Overview

  • About 700 customer accounts across Brooklyn and Queens remained without electricity Monday morning, with some outages dating to late Saturday.
  • Con Edison says snow mixed with road salt seeped into underground infrastructure and corroded cables, following similar failures in Park Slope and Boerum Hill last week.
  • The utility shifted its restoration timeline from 3 p.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday and reported crews working around the clock, including repairs near Schaefer Street and Central Avenue in Bushwick.
  • New York City operated roughly 65 warming facilities and buses during an extreme cold warning, and officials and advocates reported at least 17 to 18 cold-related deaths over the past two weeks.
  • Residents described cold homes, spoiled food and hotel stays and voiced frustrations over communication and billing, with a warming site opened at Evergreen Middle School for Exploration.