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Power Restored to Most of Manhattan, But Many Borough Homes Still Dark

By Heather Grossmann | November 3, 2012 11:58am | Updated on November 3, 2012 6:17pm

NEW YORK — Con Ed announced that as of 5:30 p.m. power had been restored to more than 670,000 households and businesses which lost power when superstorm Hurricane Sandy swept New York.

Nearly all of Manhattan has regained power, including most of the neighborhoods impacted when the East River surged through Con Edison’s East 13th Street substation.

Still, at least 270,000 homes and businesses in New York still don't have electricity, a number which a Con Ed representative called "another hurricane's worth of restoration to accomplish." Con Ed said that overheard damage in the outer boroughs and Westchester remained their primary focus.

John Miksad, Con Edison’s senior vice president of electric operations, said that schools, polling site and senior centers were being prioritized for service restoration. The utility said that there were still 40 schools in their service area without electricity, and that of 1250 polling sites they served, 70 were still without power.

The majority of the polling sites without power were located in Westchester County, according to Con Ed. Miksad said they were "fairly confident" that power would be returned to these polling sites by election day, and that they were in talks with the city and Westchester County about alternate plans in the event that power was not restored, including putting up tents for voting and moving people to other polling locations.

Approximately 200 large buildings in the service area have sustained major equipment damage and were unable to be electrified as of Saturday evening.

Con Ed also said they had established basecamps at Citi Field and Miller Field on Staten Island, among other places, to feed and house the thousands of national employees from across the U.S. who had come in to help.