Ernesto has come and gone in Westchester, however, days later about 14,000 Con Edison customers are still without power Tuesday.

Con Edison Vice President Bill McGrath says Ernesto did more damage to the electricity than storms have in the past 20 years. He hopes to have power restored to about half the customers by the end of the day and all should be out of the dark by Thursday. McGrath says there were delays in response to the power outages because the storm was slow in leaving the county.

County Executive Andy Spano is asking Governor George Pataki (R-NY) for an independent team of experts to assess Con Ed?s response to the storm. Spano says the assessment should include the utility company?s response time, communication with the public and the possibility of updating Con Ed?s infrastructure.

Related Information Ernesto leaves nearly 20,000 Westchester residents in dark Eastchester police, residents fume over Con Ed's response to area outages