Electric service has been restored to nearly 95 percent of customers affected by Wednesday’s winter storm, as crews from Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. and mutual aid forces continue to repair damage caused by fallen trees and limbs.
Since Wednesday, more than 67,000 power outages have been restored, and as of 7 a.m. today, less than 2,500 customers remain without service, primarily in Orange County. About 200 individual damage locations remain, and it is expected that electric service will be restored to virtually all customers by tonight. Customers currently without power and who have not already reported their power condition are urged to do so.
The winter storm on Wednesday was the second in five days to hit the region, causing widespread damage and more than 70,000 power outages in total to Central Hudson’s customers. As a result of this storm, more than 1 million power outages were reported throughout the Northeast.
Closely preceding this storm, a significant nor’easter that brought strong winds and heavy, wet snow caused more than 2.5 million power outages throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. This storm toppled entire trees and limbs onto poles and power lines, causing a total of 109,000 power outages within Central Hudson’s service area, and ranking as the fourth most damaging storm for the energy company in the last 50 years. Electric service was restored to all of Central Hudson’s affected customers before the arrival of Wednesday’s storm.
Central Hudson retained assistance from mutual aid crews from Canada, New York, Vermont and the Midwest at different times to repair damage and restore service. Combined with tree trimmers and Central Hudson’s electric line crews, hundreds of workers addressed approximately 2,000 damage locations and replaced more than 220 poles combined during both storms.