Businesses feel the impacts of ongoing power outages in Boerum Hill and Park Slope
More than 1,000 customers in Park Slope and Boerum Hill are currently without power, that's according to Con Ed's outage map.
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It's been a frustrating and dangerous past few days for hundreds of people in Brooklyn.
Residents and business owners in Boerum Hill and Park Slope say they’ve been without power and heat for four days.
According to Con Edison, as of Monday night, 1,632 of their customers were still without power.
“We were notified yesterday evening that the power went out and that they didn’t know the source of the issue,” said Grace Lee, owner of Code Ninja. “So for us, it was nerve-racking because we pick up students from neighboring schools and we provide aftercare for families.”
Care that so many working parents rely on. Which is why Lee kept her doors open.
Inside, she said her staff used flashlights to help kids navigate the dark bathrooms, and they stayed bundled up for warmth.
“We do have a space heater,” said Lee. “But we’re worried that if we use it, it might actually cause us to lose additional power.”
Four blocks away from her facility is IL Vino Torchio, where the owner says the first signs of the outage at his wine store showed up last Friday, and things have only gotten worse.
“On Friday the lights started flickering,” said Marcelo Torchio. “On Sunday, the power was down around 6 p.m. so we couldn’t even do the closing. It was stressful.”
Torchio was forced to shell out money to rent a generator and a space heater to keep his business running.
“There was a loss for sure because Sunday we closed at the peak of the time,” said Torchio. “It was the Grammys. A lot of people get together to watch. People come on Sunday night after cooking dinner. So we lost revenue for sure.”
Part of the city’s efforts to help the hundreds of people still without power or heat is to warm buses. But unless you’re told they exist, the only visible indication of what they are for is a paper sign taped on the bus.
“There's no one giving an explanation of what’s happening,” said one woman using the warming bus, as she reached day four of no heat and power in her home. “I've been living here for 25 years and never had this happen.”
She and her daughter spent hours on the warming bus, charging up their devices and trying to avoid freezing.
“If it were any other lower economic neighborhood, it's tougher because the city clearly doesn't have enough resources to get a hold on this,” said her daughter.
While Con Edison crews remain on scene working to fix the outages, officials say the snow and cold temps are making repairs difficult.
Meanwhile, City Council members are calling for ConEd bills during this time to be suspended for impacted customers.
