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Con Ed agrees to reimburse for spoiled food, and medicine

After two winter storms knocked out power for thousands of Westchester residents, utility company Con Edison has agreed to reimburse some affected customers for spoiled food and medicine.

On March 15, the utility company announced that it will reimburse customers who lost power for three or more consecutive days for spoiled food and medicine. According to the company, the limit to reimbursements vary from $225 to $515 if the reimbursement claim also contains receipts.

Business owners are also eligible for reimbursements totaling $10,200 with receipts.

After two consecutive nor’easter storms pummeled Westchester County earlier this month, downing trees and power lines, and leaving some residents without power for a week or more, lawmakers across the local, county and state levels have begun to question the preparedness of Con Edison and New York State Energy and Gas, NYSEG, the two suppliers of energy in the county.

At the storm outage peak, as many as 50,000 Westchester County residents were without power due to the confluence of high winds and heavy snow brought by both storms. Including neighboring Rockland and Putnam counties, the total of residents without power soared to more than 100,000.

While Westchester County Executive George Latimer called for the resignation of the head of Con Edison and NYSEG, other state lawmakers like Sen. Terrence Murphy, a Yorktown Republican, has called for a hearing to evaluate companies’ level of storm preparedness.

Murphy, who also chairs the New York State Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, said that next week a hearing with members of the public, lawmakers, and officials from Con Edison and NYSEG will convene to discuss the storm response.

The meeting will take place on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the John F. Kennedy High School auditorium in Somers.

Members of the public are invited to attend and can submit written testimony to John Winton at winton@nysenate.gov. Oral testimony is given by invitation only.

-Reporting by James Pero