Yonkers residents laud AEP Texas crews

The following email was sent to aep.com from a New York state resident who praised AEP Texas for getting the lights back on:

I am a resident of the City of Yonkers in Westchester County in New York. The power on my street was knocked out due to Hurricane Sandy. Our utility, Con Edison, made some repairs in the neighborhood then left without restoring power on my street. Over a weeks time Con Ed returned three times to “assess” the problem but would not answer questions and only replied “I don’t know” to any questions. Each crew didn’t know another had already been there.

The 12-14 homes out of power were in despair as the weather began dropping into the 30s at night. On Sunday morning, Nov. 4, after a week without power, I looked out the window and saw about 4-5 trucks with buckets and a couple of pickup trucks with AEP on the doors. The neighbors gathered with anticipation and excitement. We met William Ashcraft, the supervisor and all of his crew of about 15 strong. I wish I had remembered the names of all of them, they were truly fantastic. We asked one of the crew if they thought they could do anything. We heard his reply in disbelief, “We’re not leaving until you folks have power.”

They were extremely professional, as well as very friendly. They went to work and at no time, unlike all our utility companies, did I see them standing around drinking coffee and discussing what to do. (Usually when our utilities work, 8 stand around drinking coffee as one worker looks at the job confused!!) They went to work like a fine tuned machine (This, after driving 4 days to get here) and within a couple of hours had our power restored. It was all our childhood Christmas dreams rolled into one!! We didn’t experience the devastation many in the New York and New Jersey area did and we are very grateful for that. But living without power, no heat, hot water, unable to cook, as the temperatures dropped into the 30s was enough.

William Ashcraft kept us up to date and he was very reassuring. The whole crew was so friendly, I know all the neighbors wanted to commend them and give them a sincere “Thank You.” After power was on we spent a few minutes trading stories of the Corpus Christi area and New York City as well as Westchester County. I have traveled through many states but never got to Texas but it will certainly be on my list. Thank you for coming to the aid of our community.

Raymond Dooley
Yonkers, New York