Full Notification

The New Castle Police urge our residents to exercise caution with tomorrow’s forecasted snow, wind conditions, and dangerously cold temperatures.

Please avoid all unnecessary travel and be prepared by keeping ample emergency supplies in your home and vehicles.

Tomorrow’s snow and expected wind conditions may bring down power lines, causing residents to lose service and creating a safety hazard.  In addition, road salt mixing with melting snow could damage underground electrical wiring, possibly leading to outages.

If your electric service goes out, call Con Ed directly at 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633). Calling Con Ed enters your power loss into their computerized database.  You can also report downed power lines, outages, view their outages map, and check outage status at www.conEd.com.   Calling the Police to report a power loss only serves to tie up emergency telephone lines. You will be then be directed to contact Con Ed directly.

When reporting an outage, customers should have their Con Edison account number available, if possible, and pass on whether their neighbors also have lost power.

Safety Tips:

Frostbite

To avoid frostbite, stay inside during severe cold.  If you must go out, try to cover every part of your body: ears, nose, toes, fingers, etc. Mittens are better than gloves. Keep your skin dry.  Stay out of the wind when possible. Drink plenty of fluids since hydration increases the blood’s volume, which helps prevent frostbite.  Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and cigarettes. Caffeine constricts blood vessels, preventing the warming of your extremities.  Alcohol reduces shivering, which helps keep you warm. Cigarette use shuts off the blood flow to your hands.

Frozen Pipes

Prevent pipes from freezing by turning on hot and cold-water faucets slightly, preferably in a basement sink – running water will not freeze as quickly. Open cabinet doors to allow more heat to get to non-insulated pipes under a sink or appliance near an outer wall. If you plan to leave your residence, drain and shut off the water system (except indoor sprinkler systems).

If your pipes burst, make sure you and your family know how to shut off the water.  Stopping water flow minimizes damage to your home.  
Call a plumber and contact your insurance agent.  Never try to thaw a pipe with an open flame or torch. Always be careful of the potential for electric shock in and around standing water.

Fire Safety

Alternate sources of home heating are a major cause of winter residential fires.  Make sure all levels of your home have a working smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm and check it monthly. 

• Always keep a screen around an open flame.
• Never use gasoline to start your fireplace.
• Never burn charcoal indoors.
• Do not close the damper when ashes are hot.
• When using alternative heat sources such as a fireplace, wood stove, etc., always make sure you have proper ventilation.
• Keep curtains, towels, and potholders away from hot surfaces.
• Have your chimney checked before the season for creosote buildup -- and then clean it.
• Establish a well-planned escape route with the entire family.  ​

Generators

If you plan on using a generator, make sure to use it safely:

• Do not run a portable generator in your home or business;
• keep it outside and away from the house so that the exhaust does not cause anyone to become sick. 
• Keep combustible materials away from the generator
• When refueling, turn it off and let it cool down.

Kerosene Heaters

If you use kerosene heaters to supplement your regular heating or as an emergency source of heat, follow these safety tips: 

• Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Use only the correct fuel for your unit.
• Refuel outdoors ONLY and only when the unit is cool.
• Keep the heater at least three feet away from furniture and other flammable objects.
• When using the heater, use fire safeguards and ventilate properly.​​​

Pet Tips

• Remember, if it’s too cold for you, it’s probably too cold for your pet, so keep your animals inside. If left outdoors, pets can freeze, become disoriented, lost, stolen, injured, or killed.
• Don’t leave pets alone in a car during cold weather, as cars can act as refrigerators that hold in the cold and cause animals to freeze to death.
• If your dog is short-haired, consider getting him a coat or sweater with a high collar or turtleneck with coverage from the base of the tail to the belly.  For many dogs, this is regulation winter wear.

Be Neighborly

• Please check on your neighbors who are frail, alone, or may need additional help.  Make sure they are prepared and stay safe during the cold temperatures.
• The New Castle Police Department maintains a voluntary list of people who may require additional help and would like to be checked on during extreme weather.  If you or someone you know would like to be added to this list, call (914) 238-4422.

We would also remind residents not to leave vehicles parked on the street overnight. Vehicles may be summonsed or towed if they hinder DPW operations: No vehicle shall be parked, stored or left standing unattended by a person capable of operating it on any street or highway at any time between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. during the period between the first day of November and the first day of April.

If you have not already done so, sign up for Nixle at https://local.nixle.com/register/ or text your zip code to 88877 for mobile-only alerts, and sign up for CodeRED at https://public.coderedweb.com/cne/en-US/BFB7CC4C6C0A.