UPDATE: SoCal Edison Crews to Fly from March to Sandy-Devastated NY-NJ

Update 6:30 p.m. A convoy of SCE trucks that was due to leave Wednesday morning from Menifee for New York to assist in Hurricane Sandy restoration efforts will now be flown out of March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley, Patch has confirmed.

"We were all ready to go, about to leave the driveway and they said 'wait we are trying to get there faster,'" Southern California Edison Spokesperson David Song told Patch.

SCE will now be provided Air Force transport to the New York area, where they will assist Con Edison, Song said.

Approximately 70 to 80 vehicles will be flown on six C-5s and eight C-17s, according to Song. The loads will leave March ARB Thursday morning, between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., he said.

"They are going to load all our vehicles. This is all part of the urgency to get the crews get there," Song said.

Crews are flying out separately Thursday, he said.

Although SCE and Con Edison are not sister companies, Song said: "We have no relationship to them. We are trying to help. We would expect the same from other utilities."

About 8 million people along the East Coast were initially without power following the storm; about 6 million people remained without electricity as of Wednesday morning, according to news reports.

Posted 12:56 p.m. Patch speaks with Ed Antillon, director of electric distribution for Southern California Edison, about the assistance SCE is sending to New York in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's devastation to the East Coast.

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