Editor’s note: This press release was provided by County Legislator Terry Clements.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

As you know, the Board of Legislators and other elected officials have held a series of meetings with Con Edison to insist that the company improve its response to storm outages.

One of the areas we’ve stressed that the company must improve is communication with customers — both before storms and during the restoration process when outages happen.

Con Ed is now offering customers the chance to enroll in a text messaging program that will send pre-storm weather alerts and storm preparation information.  In addition, customers who suffer outages and inform the company about them, will get system and safety updates, including an estimated time of restoration.

Customers who want to enroll can use their cell phones to text REG to OUTAGE (688243) and follow the prompts. Customers will need their account numbers and to confirm their zip codes.  Your account number can be retrieved online by logging on to your Con Ed account and navigating to the “My Account” section, or by checking a bill.

If you sign up but decide you don’t want the text messages, Con Ed assures us that you can opt out.

More information is available at coned.com/text.

As the winter storm season approaches, the Board of Legislators will continue to monitor Con Ed’s storm response and work to make the company more responsive to the needs of Westchester residents.

Sincerely,