It’s not over yet.
Utility companies yesterday brought big chunks of the power grid back on line and businesses reopened in downtown Manhattan and elsewhere in the storm-tossed region.
But there’s still a long way to go — with hundreds of thousands still without power, enduring the late-autumn chill without heat and cleaning up flood-stricken homes.
Yesterday afternoon, 149,000 Con Ed customers in the city and 96,000 in Westchester were without power, 461,800 Long Island Power Authority customers had no electricity in Nassau and Suffolk counties and the Rockaways, and a staggering 1.24 million remained powerless in New Jersey.
Con Ed had managed to get the lights back on in most of lower Manhattan, but property owners’ own failed equipment — mostly in flooded basements — were keeping about 100 buildings in the dark.
So far, Con Ed has restored electricity to 230,000 customers in Manhattan, 134,000 in Brooklyn, 39,000 in Queens, 46,000 in The Bronx, 120,000 on Staten Island and 102,000 in Westchester.