Power Restoration Continues As 2nd Snow Storm Arrives

The meteorological deadline has passed with the start of the second nor’easter to slam the Hudson Valley in less than a week. Power companies were working to get as many of their customers back on the electrical grid as they could before the snow started. However, it is unknown whether the nor’easter affecting the Hudson Valley Wednesday will cause more outages and make matters worse.

Con Edison said it had gotten electricity restored to all but about 9,500 of its households by Monday morning.

In a press release, Con Ed said the remaining customers, which are typically those outages affecting one or two customers, are expected to be restored by 11 p.m. Friday, March 9.

My bad. @ConEdison says the power will be restored on Friday by 11pm. They already said it would be restored by Monday at 11pm (it is Wednesday now)........They also texted me saying that we had power, I go outside and see 5 trees hanging from power lines......SMHHHHHHHHHHHH
— Greg Loeb (@gloeb90) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/gloeb90/st... 7, 2018

Julie Mulry Kaen of Yorktown is one of those customers still without electricity.

She lost power at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 2 and had been sheltering in place since then.

Kaen’s been frustrated at times by the changing restoration estimates, even getting a Con Edison robocall saying her electricity was back on when it wasn’t.

“We have flashlights, radio, water and food staples and extra propane for the grill,” she said in an email. “We spend each evening waiting under blankets, listening to the radio and waiting for power.”

Her house is about 42 degrees, but goes down to freezing at night. Now, however, Yorktown is under a snow emergency and driving is being discouraged, so they decided to relocate temporarily while they could.

Kaen said they will return to their home when the roads are open and wait in hope again.

“But if the company that provides me power thinks I have power, which is the same thing that happened during Sandy, I am not certain how quickly it would be restored without the help of our elected officials and town employees and their staffs advocating on our behalf,” she said.

Kaen singled out Senator Terence Murphy’s office, the town council, Highway Superintendent Dave Paganelli and his staff and the police and fire departments for helping her through the ordeal.

To report a Con Edison outage, go here. Con Edison said it is working to repair technical issues with the automated outage map on its website. The map may display numbers that are outdated.

NYSEG said that the number of its customers without electricity is about 8,400 total, with 1,200 in Dutchess, 5,600 in Putnam, 1,500 in Westchester and 2 in Ulster.

In Mahopac, there are more than 2,000 waiting for lights to come back on. Except for a handful of locations, which have an estimated restoration time of 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, the rest are still be assessed.

To report, a NYSEG outage, go here.

Central Hudson only has a smattering of outages remaining, with 98 in Dutchess County, 77 in Ulster and 2 in Putnam.

The utility company said all customers should be restored by midnight Thursday, March 8.

Pleasant Valley, which has 74 of the Dutchess County outages, should be fully restored by 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 7.

O&R electricity customers without electricity in Orange County are 368. Restoration is estimated to be Friday, March 9 at 11:59 p.m. In Rockland County, the number is 116. They are on track to be restored by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 7.

Report O&R outages here.

Photo credit: Lanning Taliaferro/Patch Staff.