After suffering powerless through eight days of blistering heat, most of 25,000 residents of New York's Queens borough now have their electricity restored, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.
"They are down to 3,000 or 4,000 left to go," Bloomberg told reporters after consulting with Consolidated Edison, New York's sometimes hapless, always expensive and often vilified power company popularly known as Con Ed.
"They think they'll make big progress today (Monday). Nobody can guarantee that every single one will be back tonight. But if you do not have your power by this evening, call (Con Ed)," he said.
New York City estimated that 100,000 persons, were affected by the massive power outage in the districts of Astoria, Hunter's Point, Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside.
Con Ed has yet to announce the cause of the week-long outage, but said it was related to thunderstorms and a heat wave reaching 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) that afflicted the city at the time.
The power company has been criticized for not revealing sooner the number of homes affected, which slowed police, firefighter, sanitation and emergency response. Initially, the company said only some 1,200 customers were affected.
