Businesses and residents in northern California are being urged by the state's power grid operator to conserve energy because of heavy damage to transformers following reports of gunshots.

The California Independent System Operator asked those near San Jose, Santa Clara and Silicon Valley to reduce their energy use after the apparent vandalism of the Metcalf transmission substation. Gunshots were reported in the area early Tuesday morning, but Santa Clara County Sheriff's Detective Kurtis Stenderup told NBCBayArea.com it is too early to tell if the gunshots are related to the damage.

The vandalism caused about 10,000 gallons of oil to leak from the transformers. Hazardous material crews were cleaning up the mess.

Two hours after the gunfire was heard, PG&E Corp's Pacific Gas and Electric reported to the authorities that the security fence protecting the equipment had been breached.

At least five transformers were damaged.

"As damage assessments continue, additional equipment at the substation may be taken out-of-service. This will limit transmission capability in this area of the high-voltage grid, which is why conservation is required," California ISO said in a release.

Consumers were asked to reduce energy use until midnight. Hours after the incident, there were no reports of customers without power, according to Pacific Gas and Electric.

Jonathan Bachman / Reuters

The Superdome field in partial darkness the NFL Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Sunday.

While the reasons for the 34-minute power outage during Sunday’s Super Bowl remain largely unknown, advocates for a smarter energy grid say it is the latest example of why the nation needs desperately to invest in its electricity infrastructure.

The blackout in New Orleans, coupled with the recent prolonged outages in New York and New Jersey caused by Hurricane Sandy, have put on display for the world how vulnerable America can be to losing its lights.  Experts say it is a vulnerability that could have potentially crippling effects.

“The grid has all these parts where accidents can occur, and many accidents have the potential to create widespread problems,” said Susan Tierney, co-author of a National Research Council report that details the flaws in how the country gets its power.

She likened it to the nation’s interstate system, with main arteries and smaller back roads, so interconnected that a problem is rarely isolated.

The National Research Council report, completed in 2007 but declassified by the Department of Homeland Security last November, warns that a coordinated strike on the electric grid could have devastating effects on the American economy and psyche.

The non-partisan report said: "If carried out in a carefully planned way, by people who knew what they were doing, such an attack could deny large regions of the country access to bulk system power for weeks or even months. An event of this magnitude and duration could lead to turmoil, widespread public fear, and an image of helplessness that would play directly into the hands of the terrorists.”

Along with the physical damage and darkness, an attack on the nation’s electrical grid could cause, the biggest impact could be devastating financially, according to Tierney.

“Almost every aspect of our economy is touched by electricity, from banking to hospitals to world markets,” she said. “The worst case scenario could be devastating.”

Aging infrastructure
Like the roads and bridges that make up America’s physical infrastructure, its electrical infrastructure is getting more ancient.

And University of Minnesota Professor Massoud Amin, an expert on the U.S. electrical grid, said our increasingly digital society is only causing more strain.

“You’re dealing with an aging infrastructure that is not made for this century’s demands,” he said.

Amin’s research shows America’s problems with electricity are getting worse. There were 149 power outages that affected at least 50,000 from 2000-2004, a number that rose to 349 from 2005-2009.  

Though questions surround what exactly caused the lights to go out in the Big Easy, Amin said he believes a smarter grid would have prevented the incident.

He advocates for a self-healing infrastructure that can communicate when problems arise, anticipate potential issues and isolate the area where the problem arises.

While energy experts and politicians on both sides of the aisle agree something needs to be done, little has been. 

The U.S. is quickly falling behind European countries in terms of its energy reliability, according to John Kelly, executive director of Galvin Power Initiative, which compares the energy reliability of countries around the world. [PDF link]    

“We’re not improving right now,” said Kelly.

The reason, both Amin and Tierney agree, comes down to unwillingness in both the public and private sector to put in the cash.

To create a smarter grid, money must go into things like research and development, security systems and standardizing equipment to allow defective parts to quickly be swapped out.

Cost savings
With an increasing number of weather-related catastrophes that some have attributed to climate change, time is an even more pressing issue. Money is being spent repairing old electrical lines instead of on new technologies.

A national smart grid could cost up between $338 billion to $476 billion over the next 20 years, according to a 2011 study by the Electric Power Research Institute.

“There is a lot of uncertainty, a lot of stake holders and some major concerns about return on investment,” said Amin. “Filling potholes and putting money into education is seen as a better investment than electric.”

But the director of the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute added that much of the investment has been stifled because, by-and-large, Americans are happy with their electrical service.

“It’s not to say the sky is falling,” said Amin. “When these things happen they bother us. The problem we should worry about is when they become more than just a bother.”

David Friedman / NBC News

City sanitation workers pick up debris from Superstorm Sandy outside the Breezy Point community polling place at St. Genevieve Church on Tuesday, Nov. 6, in Breezy Point, N.Y.

NEW YORK – The city is embarking on an unprecedented reconstruction program to swiftly repair homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. The program will be mostly paid for by the federal government and aims to get some people home early next week, he said.

The program, called New York City Rapid Repair, will deploy general contractors who will oversee the work in the hard-hit areas. Those contractors will manage electricians, plumbers, carpenters and others to complete the repairs, Bloomberg said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supporting the project and will pay for most if not all of it, he added.

“For a homeowner to go off on their own and find somebody who was available and willing to show up is a daunting task,” he said at a news conference. “We’re changing the game. Today, we’re launching a program that will start returning people to their homes as early as next week. … Its goal is to get as many New Yorkers as possible back in their homes by the end of the year.”

Some 90,000 households in New York City and Long Island remained without power Friday. Some homes need simple repairs to get up and running, while others will need major work.

The program will begin with the easiest houses to fix, with those that have received a green card -- indicating they are sound -- from the buildings department, Bloomberg said. The buildings department has already examined some 80,000 homes.

To register, people must either visit one of the city’s restoration centers, call the information line (311) or sign up online. They must call FEMA to get an identification number. Bloomberg said. The first wave of applicants must have received a green card and be on a street where power has been restored.

Signup begins Tuesday. Work will start soon afterward.

Bloomberg said the program, which is optional, was unprecedented and “will save the city, state and federal government a lot of money and that’s because contractors will be able to work on multiple buildings at once and not just one house at a time.”

Contractors will work over the weekend with the buildings department to identify the homes that will be in the first wave of repairs.

The program “will go a long ways in our recovery, but I will say it won’t fix everything,” Bloomberg said. “In the hardest hit places like Breezy Point, homes were completely destroyed and some of the buildings that are standing will need major structural work before they can be lived in again. For those families, we’re working on housing options that we’ll have more to say about next week.”

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Jonathan Sanger / NBC News

Heather Humphries fills a generator with gas in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012.

A Long Island, N.Y., woman died this week when a portable generator she began using after Superstorm Sandy knocked out the electricity in her neighborhood emitted fatal levels of carbon monoxide.

Michelle Bracco, 44, was discovered unconscious in her home around 10 p.m. Monday, police said. She was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, N.Y., where she was pronounced dead, NBCNewYork reported.

Police said a portable generator in the garage was being used to provide power to Bracco’s home.

Bracco’s death wasn't the first caused by Sandy’s silent killer since the storm passed.

Local news outlets have reported that carbon monoxide poisoning has sickened dozens of people in more than 10 Northeast states in Sandy’s wake. Now, as newly powerless residents throughout the storm-struck region crank up generators after a nor’easter brought record early snow and winter weather, the potential for more deaths is high, officials warn.

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“The stories that we’re hearing over the last couple of days are frightening,” New Jersey Poison Control Center Director Dr. Steven Marcus told NJ.com. “People are just not thinking, and I’m afraid that the longer there is no power, the worse this could be.”

The storm boasted wind gusts of more than 50 mph and dropped heavy snow on already-weakened tree limbs, leading to the new outages. When combined with the residual outages left by Sandy, officials estimate some 700,000 are without power across the Northeast, according to utility providers in the region. 

Experts say carbon monoxide poisonings tend to spike when an area loses electricity because people often put power generators in partially opened or closed garages or bring charcoal grills indoors. Carbon monoxide can also seep through slightly open windows.

Police blamed carbon monoxide for the death of James Stapleford, 75, and Eva Stapleford, 73, of Shokan, N.Y., who were using a generator to power their home in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the New York Daily News reported. Police said the couple, who were discovered Monday, appeared to have been dead for two days. 

Record snow, new power outages as storm slams Northeast

In Newark, N.J., Mudiwa Benson and Kenya Barber, both 19, died last week, police said, from prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide because a generator was too close to their apartment home, NJ.com reported.  

In Pennsylvania, four people died of carbon monoxide poisoning last week from generator fumes in separate incidents, the AP reported.

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And in Edison Township, N.J., a 65-year-old man likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning after running his generator in his garage last Wednesday, police said.

When emergency medical services responded to his house, police said they found him "blue in color." The generator found in his closed garage had run out of gas, NJ.com reported.

Carbon monoxide is completely odorless and invisible. Symptoms of poisoning caused by the gas include nausea, headaches, dizziness and vomiting, which can escalate to unconsciousness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC advises placing generators at least 20 feet away from homes, since there’s not enough ventilation within garages and basements or near open windows to prevent fatal poisoning. Battery-powered alarms are also necessary to warn residents before carbon monoxide reaches dangerous levels. 

Marcus said people shouldn’t hesitate if they think they have a carbon monoxide problem.

"They need to get out of the house," he said. "Don’t open the windows. Just get out of the house. Don’t waste any time and get medical help."

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Patrick Semansky / AP

Chuck Clauser looks out from a hole Saturday where a wall once stood at his Cedar Bonnet Island, N.J., home that was damaged by a surge from Sandy

Updated at 12:00 a.m. ET: East Coast residents struggling to pick up the pieces after superstorm Sandy confronted new challenges Sunday: plummeting temperatures and the looming threat of another significant storm.

With the mercury dipping into the 30s overnight and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in New York City, its northern suburbs and Long Island still without electricity six days after the storm, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said "it's going to become increasingly clear" that homes without heat will be uninhabitable as temperatures drop.

That means that residents who have been reluctant to leave their homes will have to, and that they'll need housing.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city expects that it will have to find housing for 30,000 to 40,000 people.

The battered region, still beset with stubborn power outages and gasoline shortages, could be hit by a “significant” nor’easter by Thursday, the National Weather Service said Sunday.

At the very least, the service's prediction center stated, there is "a very real possibility of heavy rain and strong winds along the coast from Virginia to Maine." Snow is likely in the interior and some models "do bring some snow all the way to the coast as far south as Virginia," it warned.

"Our suite of computer model guidance continues to advertise a significant East Coast storm that will impact the coastal areas with strong winds and heavy rainfall late Wednesday through Friday," said Tom Niziol of The Weather Channel. "Steps should begin now to prepare for these impacts."

The storm would not be anywhere as destructive as Sandy, but could cause some new erosion and hinder recovery efforts, officials said.

FEMA and Red Cross officials have ordered more resources ahead of the storm.

New York's Con Edison announced late Sunday night that it had restored service to more than 770,000 customers, or about 80 percent of those who lost electricity during the storm in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx.

In hard-hit New jersey, PSE&G said another 600 workers will be joining the more than 3,000 linemen and tree contractors already working in blacked-out areas.

“Our biggest challenge is in Hoboken, where our stations were submersed in more than 3 feet of water. It took several days for this water to recede. Much of the equipment was corroded by salt water and needs extensive work,” the utility said in a statement.

Gov. Chris Christie and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured Hoboken on Sunday and promised residents that what needed to get done would get done.

"Everywhere I’ve traveled, whether it’s a local shelter or a Red Cross shelter, an impromptu roadside table that neighbors have put together to provide food and drinks for people who are working – this is the symbol of New Jersey coming together during a really difficult time," Chrsitie told reporters.

Napolitano said federal agencies are looking for apartments and hotel rooms for people displaced by Sandy. "Our goal is to try to get people out of the shelters,'' she said.

In flood-ravaged Belmar, N.J., where the floodwaters had receded but the streets were slippery with foul-smelling mud, hundreds of parishioners in parkas, scarves and boots packed the pews and stood in the aisles for Mass at a chilly Church of St. Rose. Firefighters and police officers sat in the front rows and drew applause.   

Roman Catholic Bishop David O'Connell of the Trenton Diocese said he had no good answer for why God would allow the destruction that Sandy caused. But he assured parishioners: "There's more good, and there's more joy, and there's more happiness in life than there is the opposite. And it will be back. And we will be back."

Meanwhile, fuel supplies continued to rumble toward disaster zones and electricity was slowly returning to darkened neighborhoods. Officials were urging drivers and powerless residents desperate for gas not to panic, saying relief is on the way.

But frustration was evident, as drivers waited in line for hours for a chance at a fill-up, snapping at each other and honking their horns.

At a gas station in Mount Vernon, N.Y., north of New York City, 62 cars were lined up around the block Sunday morning even though it was closed and had no fuel.

"I heard they might be getting a delivery. So I came here and I'm waiting," said the first driver in line, Earl Tuck. He had been there at least two hours by 9 a.m., and there was no delivery truck in sight. But he said he would stick it out.

Bloomberg said that resolving the gas shortages could take days. Across northern New Jersey, Christie imposed odd-even gas rationing that recalled the gasoline crisis of the 1970s.

With Sunday's running of the New York City Marathon canceled, some of those who were planning to run the 26.2-mile race through the city streets instead headed to hard-hit Staten Island to help storm victims. 

Thousands of other runners from such countries as Italy, Germany and Spain poured into Central Park to hold impromptu races of their own. A little more than four laps through the park amounted to a marathon.

"A lot of people just want to finish what they've started," said Lance Svendsen, organizer of a group called Run Anyway.

Cuomo on Sunday announced that more than 850 soldiers and 250 vehicles from Army National Guard units in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Massachusetts will begin arriving in New York to assist in Sandy response efforts. He also announced that the state will release $22.8 million to New York City that could be used for repairs to wastewater treatment facilities damaged during the storm.

Though New York and New Jersey bore the brunt of the destruction, at its peak, the storm reached 1,000 miles across, killed more than 100 people in 10 states, knocked out power to 8.5 million homes and businesses and canceled nearly 20,000 flights. Damage has been estimated $50 billion, making Sandy the second most expensive storm in U.S. history, behind Hurricane Katrina.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

Launch slideshow

Officials have also expressed concern about getting voters displaced by Sandy to polling stations for Tuesday's election. Scores of voting centers were rendered useless by the record surge of seawater in New York and New Jersey. 

New Jersey is allowing voters displaced by Sandy to vote by email. Some voters in New York could be casting their ballots in tents. 

Christie ordered county clerks to open on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate early voters and ensure a "full, fair and transparent open voting process." 

New Jersey authorities also took the uncommon step of declaring that any voter displaced from their home by Sandy would be designated an overseas voter, which allows them to submit an absentee vote by fax or email.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

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Justin Lane / EPA

Collins Wimbish and Margaret Girgaud turned a barrel into a barbecue in order to cook food in the Rockaways neighborhood of Queens, New York, on Saturday. The Rockaways will dip to around 28 degrees overnight.

Updated at 9:45 am ET: A "significant" nor'easter is likely to hit Sandy-battered areas of the Northeast by Thursday, the National Weather Service said in an update Sunday. FEMA and Red Cross officials have ordered more resources ahead of the storm, while New York City is dealing with a shortage of fuel oil and steam to heat buildings as temperatures began dipping into the 20s and power remained out for hundreds of thousands.

At the very least, the service's prediction center stated, there is "a very real possibility of heavy rain and strong winds along the coast from Virginia to Maine."

Snow is likely in the interior and some models "do bring some snow all the way to the coast as far south as Virginia," it warned.

Power was restored to nearly all of lower Manhattan on Saturday, but it was still lights out for 2.3 million homes in other parts of New York City and the rest of the Northeast, especially Long Island and the New Jersey shore.

In addition, "tens of thousands are without steam power and therefore heat," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Saturday.

"We want to get as many people into shelters as we can," he said, given the cold and the potential for a new storm that computer models now show being even stronger than forecast on Friday.

Bloomberg also blasted the Long Island Power Authority, saying the utility "has not acted aggressively enough" to restore power, especially in the Rockaways. 

Overnight lows were around 28 degrees F in the Rockaways, 38 in New York City and 33 on parts of Long Island, NBCNewYork.com reported. Even in areas with temps above 30, 15-20 mph winds will make it feel like it's in the 20s.

Temperatures Sunday and Monday were expected to be even colder just as critical heating oil supplies dwindle.

"There's no heating oil around," said Vincent Savino, the president of Statewide Oil and Heating, which usually supplies some 2,000 buildings across New York City. "I don't know how much fuel we have left: maybe a day or two." 

Expected to be felt in the Northeast on Wednesday and Thursday, the storm would not be anywhere as destructive as Superstorm Sandy, but could cause some new erosion and hinder recovery efforts.

Moreover, computer models are tending "toward a more powerful storm system for the East Coast Wednesday through Thursday," said weather.com expert Tom Niziol. 

Potential impacts, he said, include:

• Strong winds possibly topping 45 mph along the coast.
• High surf, which will cause additional coastal erosion.
• Significant snowfall from the Poconos through Catskills to Interior New England and Upstate New York.
• Continued cold temperatures with overnight lows in the Thursday time frame down to the low to mid 30s, even near the coast.

He expected 1-2 inches of rain in coastal areas and 25-30 mph gusts on Wednesday, adding that the forecast could change.

FEMA and Red Cross officials said Saturday they were mobilizing even more resources to prepare for the storm.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie on Saturday visited crews repairing the berm in Little Ferry, saying a push was being made to seal it up before the new storm. Sandy tore up the berm, causing widespread flooding there.

The U.S. death toll reached 111 on Saturday, officials said, after Sandy killed 69 people as a hurricane in the Caribbean. It struck the New Jersey coast on Monday as a rare hybrid after the hurricane merged with a powerful storm system in the north Atlantic.

Consolidated Edison, a utility battling what it called the worst natural disaster in its history, restored electricity to New York City neighborhoods such as Wall Street, Chinatown and Greenwich Village in the pre-dawn hours.

But some 11,000 customers in Manhattan were still without power.

"There's enough light and activity to get a lot of people on the street and get rid of that movie-set look as if we're in some kind of ghost town or horror movie," Con Ed spokesman Bob McGee told NY1 television.

In New Jersey, the utility PSE&G said 612,000 customers were still without lights after power to 1 million had been restored.

Con Ed said it had restored power to 70 percent of the 916,000 customers in the New York City area who were cut off. The company was still busy assisting tens of thousands more without power in New York City's outer boroughs, where some people complained of being ignored.

Read more Sandy coverage on NBCNews.com

"We have nobody down here with video coverage," said Grace Lane, a grandmother who defied evacuation orders and rode out the storm in her second-story bedroom as water rushed through the first floor of her house in Broad Channel, a community in Queens.

Eight people -- Lane, her husband, their two daughters, their husbands and her two grandchildren -- were sleeping on air mattresses on the floor of the upstairs bedroom, the last usable room in the house.

"At least my children are OK," she said.

Many houses were gutted by 5 feet of floodwater that raced through Broad Channel, where residents hauled broken furniture and soggy belongings out of their homes on Friday.

In a sign of security worries in the neighborhood, one garage full of debris stood open with a sign next to it reading: "LOOTERS WILL BE CRUCIFIED - GOD HELP YOU."

Moving to ease fuel shortages, the Obama administration directed the purchase of up to 12 million gallons of unleaded fuel and 10 million gallons of diesel, to be trucked to New York and New Jersey for distribution.

The government announced it would tap strategic reserves for diesel for emergency responders and waived rules that barred foreign-flagged ships from taking gas, diesel and other products from the Gulf of Mexico to Northeast ports.

The moves could help to quell anger triggered by growing lines -- some of them miles long -- at gas stations. Less than half of the stations in New York City, Long Island and New Jersey were operating on Friday.

New Jersey Gov. Christie ordered gas rationing in 12 counties to begin on Saturday under an "odd-even" system in which motorists with license plates ending in odd numbers would be able to buy gas on odd-numbered days.

Disaster modeling company Eqecat estimated Sandy caused up to $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses.

At the high end of the range, it would rank as the fourth costliest U.S. catastrophe, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the September 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

Launch slideshow

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NEW YORK -- Days after the country’s most densely populated region was brought to its knees by Superstorm Sandy, those without power were going to desperate lengths to find it.

For graphic designer Robert Romiti, that meant a three-mile march up Lower Manhattan in search of electricity to charge his iPhone. Romiti told NBC News he had walked from his apartment on South Street to the corner of 36th Street and Fifth Avenue, where a condominium tower had put out several surge protectors for passers-by. About 20 people were huddled around it.

Romiti said he’d found a similarly improvised power station six blocks to the south – but it was fully occupied.

Some people were searching for even more juice. Widespread power outages, combined with forecasts of falling temperatures and ongoing uncertainty about when power would be restored, sparked a surge in demand for home power generators. Online sites recorded most models as “out of stock” and home centers sold out shipments shortly after they arrived. Phone lines to dealers of permanent standby generators were jammed. Home center stores turned away customers looking for portable models.

A Home Depot in Port Chester, N.Y. sold 190 units within hours on Wednesday, according to a store employee. At another location in Nyack, N.Y., a cluster of customers gathered in the darkened store based on word that a truck was en route with more generators. A store employee created an impromptu waiting list by handing out slips of paper with hand-written numbers and explaining the rules: “You can’t leave and come back,” she told a new arrival. “You have to be here when your number is called.”

Across the region, more than 6 million people were without power, and many were driving miles and miles to find it.

At a Lukoil gas station in Bloomfield, N.J., about 40 cars lined up for gas Wednesday afternoon. Cesar Baez and a friend had tried five stations from Newark to Union before reaching the station, where they had already waited 90 minutes before nearing the entrance. In nearby Union, he had waited two hours before reaching the pump, only to be told the station was rationing. Baez wanted to fill his BMW to drive to Boston. “We’re trying to get out of town,” he said. Baez did not gas up before the storm. “That was an error,” he said.

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Also in line were Eileen and Michael Minogue, from Butler, N.J., about 20 miles northwest of Bloomfield. This was their first stop because none of the stations in Butler had gas. The Minogues had been waiting 40 minutes for gas for their SUV and a generator they were using to power their home. The Minogues had been without power since Monday and had been told it wouldn’t be back until at least Monday. They were going through about two gallons of gas a day to run their generator for about 4 or 5 hours a day, mostly for their refrigerator.

Jonathan Sanger / NBC News

New Yorkers charge their cell phones on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Wednesday.

For some, the scenes harken back to the fuel-shortages of the 1970s.

“Right now, there is a shortage of gas in the area because of the extraordinary demand of the few places that have electricity,” AAA Spokesperson Chris McBride told NBC News. “Without power, even if they do have reserve gas in their storage tanks, they can’t pump it out.”

On one side of an Exxon station in Belleville, N.J., cars stretched down the street, snarling traffic. On the other, people stood in line with gas cans in hand, grabbing as much fuel as they could for cars and generators. 

One man from Montclair, N.J., said his girlfriend's car ran out of fuel in line at another Exxon station. He offered money to people for their empty gas cans, hoping to carry away as much fuel as possible, but he didn't have any takers. 

The station's owner said the pumps would run out of fuel around 8 p.m. He said Exxon had a new shipment of gas on the way, but that it wouldn't be in time to help anyone tonight.

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John Makely / NBC News

Stephanie Sikaris, of Union, N.J., waits in line with others at an Exxon station on Route 22 to fill up her gas containers to feed the generator that she bought Monday from Home Depot.

Improvised charging stations
New York City's power company, Consolidated Edison Inc., said Wednesday that it had restored power to more than 160,000 of the 930,000 customers left in the dark by Hurricane Sandy. Con Ed estimated Tuesday that those served by underground electric equipment in Manhattan and Brooklyn should have their power restored within four days. 

Even without power, New Yorkers found creative ways to charge their phones and devices. 

At 10^th Street and Avenue C, where Bill DiPaola said he saw cars floating in flood waters just a day ago, some two dozen people were huddled around a two-person bike hooked up to a generator that was charging tens of phones. DiPaola, founder of the not-yet-open Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces, said he had used the bike earlier to power a pump to drain the basement. He hoped he’d still be able to open the museum as planned on Nov. 17. 

Outside, two women were pedaling furiously; they had volunteered to do so in exchange for getting to charge their phones. Audrey Conway, a fashion school student whose apartment is without power or running water, said pedaling this bike was harder than the one she rides every day.

“I’m happy I can do this,” Conway said, slightly out of breath. “Better than sitting in my apartment.” 

Jonathan Sanger / NBC News

New Yorkers found unique ways to work with limited electricity in New York on Wednesday.

At the main branch of the Montclair Public Library, where a line formed before its 10 a.m. opening, several hundred people were using every available outlet to charge computers and cellphones, with some sprawled on floors near electrical plugs. Library staffers opened an auditorium, additional conference rooms and arranged for a branch building to open Wednesday to accommodate townspeople without electricity.

“We’re trying our best to serve the public the best we can,” said library supervisor Dawn Quinn.

Jennifer Dwyer found a desk space at the library to work. “I was here earlier but the Wifi was overwhelmed so I had to buy my own hot spot,” a battery-powered Internet connection, for her computer. Dwyer had lost power Monday night. “I’m like everyone else here,” she said of her hunt for electrical power. “At least it’s not cold.”

Driving around in a mobile hotspot of their own creation, Daymion Mardel, 38, and Angel Hernandez, 36, were out in lower Manhattan to help people charge their phones out of their car. The two photographers, who live in Harlem, where they actually do have power, set up a solar panel where they could plug in about 40 phones.

“We’re just trying to help in the small ways we can,” Mardel told NBC News. “Some people donate money, we had the resources to do this. We know how important it is for people to have mobile phones to keep in touch.”  

Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

People congregate in front of a building that still has wireless Internet access in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York on Tuesday.

NBC News' John Schoen, Jane Weaver, Becky Bratu, Rosa Golijan and Jason White contributed to this report. 

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Saul Young / AP

The scene at German Creek Marina in Bean Station, Tenn., on Wednesday after several children were shocked while swimming.

When Kevin Ritz read about the children who died after being shocked by electricity while swimming in lakes in Missouri and Tennessee on Wednesday, he thought about his 8-year-old son, Lucas, and the dozens of others who have died this way.

“Everyone goes, ‘How can that happen?’” Ritz said.

In 1999, Ritz’s children were swimming in the Multnomah Channel of the Willamette River in Oregon when suddenly, Lucas let out a gasp and apparently became unconscious. His life jacket flipped him over so that his face was out of the water. As his wife jumped in the water to save their son, she felt paralyzed, a feeling she attributed to fear. His other son later reported that he, too, felt numb and tingly.

Law enforcement officers told Ritz that his son had drowned, but Ritz pushed them to investigate further. His son’s face, he said, hadn’t been submerged and he had been wearing a life jacket.

“With my digital voltmeter, I went to the area where Lucas had been, put the negative lead to a ground, dropped the positive lead into the water, and immediately got AC voltage,” he wrote in an essay about his son’s death. “I notified the Sheriff’s Department, reporting what I had found and that I wanted to get someone to confirm my test. They agreed to send out some deputies while I called in an electrician. He arrived later that morning, tracing the electricity to a powerboat that was in the area where the kids had been swimming.”

Children electrocuted while swimming in lakes

In the throes of grief, Ritz, now a marine electrician, started agitating for safer marinas. It infuriated him, for example, that electrical outlets at marinas were not held to the same standards as outlets in bathrooms.

“The European market has had ground fault protection in their marinas – the power coming into the marina at the docks – for over 25 years,” Ritz told msnbc.com. “How come we can’t have that?”

The obstacles are many, however. Ritz said that a marina manager near where he lives wanted to upgrade some of the marina’s electrical system but learned that, by law, he would also have to upgrade the whole system – a pricey proposition.

Herb Hall, president of Sierra Boat Co., a Lake Tahoe marina specializing in classic and wooden motorboats, said having good electrical systems on the docks is discussed at an annual marina conference, but that some marinas “unfortunately aren’t successful and don’t have the money to maintain things.”

“On an annual basis, you need to be inspecting out on your docks,” Hall said. “Most marinas have floating docks. You have flexible connections going out on the docks that are moving all the time, and those chafe and wear and separate.”

2nd boy dies after shock incident in Tenn. lake

Ritz works with David Rifkin to keep a list of those who have died from what they call electric shock drowning. Their list is anecdotal, because that cause of death is impossible to determine in an autopsy, Ritz said.

Rifkin counts more than 50 people who have died in that manner since the mid-1980s, but he said the actual number is likely many times that.

“Most of the time when these things happen and there’s no reason to believe it’s electrical in nature, it’s listed as a drowning,” Rifkin said. “We’re thinking the numbers could be one hundred-fold.”

Rifkin’s list does not include those that occurred Wednesday – he said he does not yet have enough information to include them.

But the deaths on the Fourth resemble the others on the list, in that all occurred in freshwater. Alexandra Anderson, 13, and her 10-year-old brother, Brayden, were swimming in Lake of the Ozarks, a freshwater lake in Missouri. Noah Winstead, 10, and his friend Nathan Lynam, 11, died after being shocked in Cherokee Lake in Tennessee.

Rifkin has no documented cases of deaths in saltwater. He says that’s because of the high voltage gradient that would have to be present.

“When these things happen, I'm often called in to find the electrical fault,” Ritz said. “I spend a good portion of my life educating first responders and law enforcement on this issue in hopes that lives will be saved.”

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WKTV-TV

New York State Police say they don't know why power lines fell in Hamilton, N.Y.

HAMILTON, N.Y. — Several cows are dead after a bizarre situation in Hamilton on Friday morning.

According to New York State Police, power lines went down on Excell Road, electrocuting animals on a farm. The incident happened around 9:30 a.m.

 State Police do not know exact number of cows killed.

A vet was dispatched to the scene.

No humans were hurt. There were no reports of any accidents in the area, so State Police are trying to figure out how the power lines fell.

Read the original story at WKTV.com

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