Thousands of south Brooklynites were left without power in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaias, and U.S. Rep. Max Rose is calling out Con Edison for not restoring power fast enough.
Rose has joined Governor Andrew Cuomo’s call for an investigation into the utility company’s preparation and response.
“For every summer that I’ve been in office, Con Ed has dropped the ball catastrophically,” Rose said. “We cannot afford to repeat this after every major heat wave or storm. There must be a reckoning. There must be an investigation, and most importantly accountability to ensure this doesn’t continue happening.”
The storm left more than 300,000 Con Ed customers across New York City without power, including 16,000 in Brooklyn, the second largest in company history, behind only Hurricane Sandy.
Despite the short length of Tuesday’s storm, Con Ed estimates more than 16,000 constituents in the 11th Congressional District may not have power restored until five days after the storm.
“I thank the workers, first responders and everyone else who are working around the clock to get the power back on,” Rose said. “Responsibility for Con Ed’s failures rests with those at the top and they have a lot to answer for.”
On Wednesday, Rose joined the NYPD’s Community Affairs Rapid Response Team to coordinate the delivery of several generators to New Yorkers with medical conditions who need electricity to survive.
Con Ed said power has been restored to more than 85 percent of affected customers in Brooklyn as of Thursday, but predicted that Staten Island won’t have power fully restored until Sunday night.
“This storm’s impact to the tri-state area was historic,” said Matthew Ketschke, Con Edison’s senior vice president of customer energy solutions. “We are making significant progress as we work around the clock to restore power. New Yorkers are depending on us.”
Former deli owner Helene Bakke dies 
Senior killed by own car