Officials critical of NYSEG response to outages

Power problems are persisting for hundreds of Western New Yorkers.

NYSEG says some people can expect to be without power until Saturday night and that has some elected officials furious.

“This is unacceptable, to the people who have been in the cold all these days,” said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. “Our first step is to get the power restored, but then to examine what went wrong, what took so long, and make sure it never happens again.”

While residents on Carriage Park in West Seneca say they are glad to have power, they felt the situation was made more stressful because of how hard it was to get information from NYSEG.

“I was very disappointed because I couldn’t speak to anyone, all I got was a recorded response,” said one resident.

NYSEG said its crews are working 24-7 and power has been restored to 95 percent of customers affected by the storm.

“I’ve been critical of NYSEG in the past and I can’t say that I am all that pleased with their response so far,” said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

Poloncarz said he contacted the governor’s office and the Department of Public Service to complain about NYSEG’s “failure to provide accurate information to the public on restoration times.”