Electric service is steadily returning to customers of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. affected by Friday’s nor’easter. Service has been restored to 97,000 customers; and as of 7 a.m.on Monday, approximately 12,500 customers remained without electricity. Of these, approximately 10,000 outages are in the most heavily affected areas of northern Dutchess County. As a result of additional mutual aid assistance, Central Hudson’s restoration projections have improved over earlier estimates and now virtually all customers will have service by Tuesday afternoon. Small localized outages in the most severely affected areas may take longer to restore.
The storm, one of the most severe to hit the Mid-Hudson Valley, damaged 130 poles, downed 1,000 powerlines and crippled nine transmission lines.
“With the addition of nearly 230 mutual aid forces arriving yesterday and today, a field force of approximately 650 will be working to restore power in the remaining hard-hit areas, assisted by hundreds more utility staff,” said Charles A. Freni, senior vice president of Customer Services and Transmission & Distribution Operations.
“We are still seeing significant damage in the hardest hit areas, with approximately 600 damage locations crews must address. Ongoing repairs from this point will restore service to fewer customers as we work to clear trees, replace poles and install new wire, transformers and other electrical equipment,” said Freni. “We thank our customers for their patience as we work toward restoring electric service.”
Service restoration for the vast majority of impacted customers in southern Dutchess and Putnam counties is expected by or before Monday afternoon. Electric service for the vast majority of impacted customers in northern Dutchess, Greene and Ulster counties is now expected to return by or before Tuesday afternoon.
“We are also preparing for the possibility of a new winter storm, forecasted to reach our region mid-week,” said Freni. “As information about this storm becomes clearer, we will reach out to our customers and make any necessary preparations.”