Progress Update: 121K Powerless Sunday Night In The Hudson Valley

UPDATE: Sunday night, approximately 121,806 customers in the Hudson Valley remained without power as four utility companies joined by contractors and out-of-state crews moved from downed wire to downed wire. Debris and fallen trees blocking roads have made the job challenging.

Officials warned members of the public to stay away from those downed wires because they may be live.

In Westchester County, where more than one in every four customers lost service, Con Edison reported restoring more than 48,000 of the 97,000 affected, leaving about 49,000 still without power Sunday night.

NYSEG reported 47,132 customers still without power as of 7:30 p.m. in Dutchess, Putnam, Ulster and Westchester counties.

O&R reported 7,997 customers still out as of 8:01 p.m.

Central Hudson reported 655 active outages as of 8 p.m. Sunday night, affecting 17,677 customers.

In Dutchess County, with more than 22,000 locations still without power, County Executive Marcus Molinaro said it has been a long and frustrating weekend for far too many.

"We have been in constant communication with both Central Hudson and NYSEG, attempting to provide every resource we can to help facilitate power restoration and reopen roadways still impacted by down power lines," he said. "Dutchess County Departments of Emergency Response and Public Works staff have been working through the weekend to assist however possible. We will continue to work with both utilities to expedite restoration efforts to get people back to normal as quickly as possible.”

In total, the storm caused 132,000 Con Ed customer outages in Westchester and the outer boroughs of New York City. The company’s workers have now restored electrical service to more than 79,500 customers since Riley’s fierce winds began knocking trees into power lines and other equipment. It ranks as the fifth most severe storm in company history based on the number of customers affected. Con Edison said its work will accelerate on Monday with the addition of more mutual aid crews. The company expects to have 90 percent of the affected customers restored by Tuesday night.

Con Edison has approximately 700 workers on hand, plus 100 support staff, involved in restoration, line repair, site safety and planning. The company has also arranged for more than 400 mutual aid workers from as far away as Canada, Texas and Wisconsin to help with the Westchester restoration.

Company officials said they were in touch with elected and school officials in Westchester for input on what areas should be given priority. Crews give priority to repairs that will provide power to the most customers and to critical facilities, such as hospitals, municipal pumping stations and schools. Then they move on and make repairs to restore smaller groups and individual customers.

SEE ALSO:

• Power Issues Change School Schedules
  
• Plowable Snow Possible This Week; Restoring Power First Concern

Sunday afternoon in the aftermath of the lethal nor'easter that killed at least eight and left millions without electricity up and down the East Coast, about 144,000 customers remained without power in the Hudson Valley. The four utilities serving the region estimated that all would be restored power by Tuesday or Wednesday, five or six days after the storm (it's being called Riley) started.

Crews are prioritizing restorations that will bring power to critical facilities and the greatest number of people as quickly as possible, with restorations that affect smaller numbers of people to follow.

NYSEG reported continued progress restoring its more than 188,000 outages across the state As of 10 a.m., Sunday, it reported 54,875 customers out just in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Ulster and Westchester counties. Company officials said more than 90 percent of customers affected by the storm in the Liberty and Brewster divisions including some of the hardest hit areas in Delaware, Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties would restored by 11:45 p.m. Monday night, March 5.

O&R reported its crews made significant progress overnight. Over 80,000 customers have been restored since the destruction began Friday morning. Still 8,600 remain out of service Sunday morning, officials said. O&R predicts most will have power restored by midnight Sunday, March 4. Exception: some buildings may be so seriously damaged that repairs must be made to the building itself before O&R can safely restore power.

Con Edison electricity customers may have to wait until 11 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 before their lights will come back on. That is the current estimated time of restoration for those whose power went out because of the massive nor’easter. As of Sunday morning, there are still 56,337 Con Edison customers without electricity.
The power company said on its website that the pace of restoration will pick up with better weather. Heavy winds Friday and Saturday didn’t help crews get their work done.

The towns of Yorktown and Mount Pleasant still have more than half of Con Edison customers without power. More than 4,200 New Rochelle customers, out of almost 29,000, don’t have electricity. A little over a third of all customers in the Village of Harrison are still in the dark.

For more information, visit Con Edison’s website here.

Central Hudson is reporting that more than two-thirds of its 110,000 customers have their lights back on. More than 21,000 households in Dutchess County are still waiting, as are 490 in Putnam County and 4,800 in Ulster County.

In Dutchess, Wappingers Falls is slated to have power restored by 10 p.m. Sunday, March 4. The Town of Wappinger is estimated for restoration by 11 p.m. Sunday, as are East Fishkill and Fishkill.

All customers in Dutchess should be back on the grid by 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 7. That is the prognosis for Ulster County as well, though several communities are now showing no outages, according to the Central Hudson map, including New Paltz, Marlborough and the Village of Saugerties.

Meanwhile, everyone is asked to stay away from downed wires. That's not easy.

For their full coverage areas, NYSEG reported more than 2,000 wires downed by the storm. Central Hudson reported 1,000 downed wires. Con Ed said it had no precise count but knew the downed wires were in the hundreds.

There are thousands of people responding to the power outage crisis. Crews and contractors including those from assisting utilities out of Maine, Connecticut and Canada are expected to continue to work on restoration efforts until all customers are restored.

By-the-by, if you have any interest at all in what happened with the very strong, very strange storm Thursday-Saturday, you must read Bill Potter and Alex Marra's recap on Hudson Valley Weather. It explains what happened and why, with amazing visuals.

NYSEG customers should call 1.800.572.1131 to report downed power lines or other hazardous situations.

For more information or to report a Central Hudson outage, go here.

SEE ALSO:

• Plowable Snow Possible This Week; Restoring Power First Concern
  
• Briarcliff Schools: Monday
  
• Lakeland School Decision: Power Returned To LHS

Some Patch coverage of previous storms' damage:

• Bedford Officials Assess the Lessons of Irene
• On Sandy Anniversary, Review Disaster Plans

With additional reporting by Michael Woyton/Patch Staff

CORRECTION: This article has been modified to correct the total number of outages. Patch regrets the error.

PHOTO: Maine-based Lucas Tree Service cleaning up in Lake Carmel, NY, March 4, 2018/ Valerie DeBenedette