The city has cooled off from yesterday’s record-shattering temperatures, but Consolidated Edison continues to deal with the strain on the electrical grid.

About 16,000 customers are still without power in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Residents in certain Brooklyn neighborhoods are being urged to use less electricity in an effort to avoid more outages. The neighborhoods are Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, Kensington, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Workers have begun distributing dry ice and other supplies on 60th Street and Sixth Avenue in Sunset Park.

Many complain that without power for their refrigerators, they have lost hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries. Those who have been without power for at least 12 hours can file a claim with Con Ed.

According to the utility, 43,000 customers have lost power at various times since Monday.

But, Con Ed says the system is holding up and that outages have been limited in part because customers heeded its appeal to conserve energy. The utility also says has spent more than $5 billion improving its system since 2006.

Also, the city is warning New Yorkers that opening fire hydrants without spray caps is illegal. Caps are available at firehouses across the city.

For more information call 311 or nyc.gov.

(Source: NY1)