Thousands of customers reported without power across NYC area as storm moves north

Residents across New York City’s outer boroughs and suburbs woke up to scattered power outages Monday morning as an intense storm continued to batter the region with heavy rain and high winds.

As of 9 a.m., Con Edison reported that lights were out for approximately 20,000 customers across the city and Westchester County.

According to the Con Ed outage map, Queens was hardest hit, with more than 6,600 customers affected. Westchester was next, with 6,100 experiencing power outages, followed by the Bronx at 3,600, then Staten Island at 2,500, and Brooklyn at 1,500.

Con Ed said it had restored service to 12,700 customers and was working to restore service for the remainder who had lost power. Middle Village, St. Albans, Hillcrest and South Ozone Park were among the most affected neighborhoods in Queens, according to the utility company.

Con Ed also reported zero outages in Manhattan, because power lines in that borough are below ground and not impacted by falling trees, according to spokesperson Allan Drury.

Drury said the company would not be able to assess the damage and make repairs until the storm ended, but added that 600 extra crew members had been dispatched to help get power back on faster.

“We can’t predict with precision in advance how many outages there are going to be, but we knew it would be impactful,” he said.

Heavy winds and rain were forecast to start tapering off around noon Monday.

On Long Island, PSEG reported more than 10,000 customers affected by outages as of 9:15 a.m. And in Northern New Jersey, more than 20,000 customers were also reported to have lost power as of 9 a.m., according to northjersey.com.

It was not immediately clear when power would be restored in these areas.

As of shortly after 7:30 a.m., the National Weather Service had issued flash flood warnings for the Bronx, Yonkers and Bridgeport, Connecticut, as well as Newark, Jersey City and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Those warnings were in effect until 10:45 a.m.

NYC emergency management officials said a flash flood warning was also issued for Manhattan through that time, and warned residents against driving or walking into flooded roadways and to move from basements to higher floors.

Rainfall totals of two to four inches in the area were expected Monday, according to the NWS.

This story was updated with new information. Andrew Giambrone contributed reporting.