Trees, power lines downed under weight of snow

Status area

Updated at 3 p.m. 2/26/10

By Kate Pastor, Maria Clark and Aliza Appelbaum

Wet and weighty snow is taking down trees and branches throughout the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area, as well as numerous electrical lines in Westchester.

The city’s Parks Department has said it is in the process of clearing a tree that fell at Ewen Park and Johnson Avenue and that another tree has fallen under the snow’s weight somewhere on Sedgwick Avenue.

A large limb lay across Palisade Avenue near West 258th Street this morning, but has now been cleared, an observer said.

A massive oak that fell on Van Cortland Park South and Gouverneur Avenue yesterday afternoon, damaging one car and crushing another, was sawed into pieces and removed. But Parks said sidewalk debris would only be cleared once weather conditions permit. A tree that fell on West 256th Street near Mosholu Avenue yesterday, also landing on a car, was quickly cleared, an observer said.

Power outages have been severe in Westchester, interrupting service to tens of thousands of homes, including at least five customers in Yonkers. So far, the Bronx has mostly been spared.

Restoring power in Westchester will be a “multi-day event,” said a Con Edison spokesman, and Con Edison teams are being brought in from other boroughs and from as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

To report a fallen tree, dial 311.

For a detailed map of power outages, go to http://apps.coned.com/weboutageinfo/stormcenter/default.aspx.

This is part of the February 25, 2010 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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