National Grid Restores 80 Percent of Customers Impacted After Wind Storm with Gusts over 70 mph Pummels Upstate New York

Company Asks Public to Exercise Caution as Crews Continue Restoration and Cleanup Efforts

A National Grid field force that has grown to more 2,200 workers has made significant progress working in hazardous conditions to successfully restore power to 80 percent of the nearly 208,000 customers impacted by the powerful wind, rain and snow storm that impact significant portions of upstate New York over the last 36 hours. The company’s crews have been working around the clock – through sustained winds of 20 to 40 mph and gusts as high as 75 mph -- removing downed trees, tree limbs, and other hazards and repairing circuits across the company’s 25,000-square-mile service area.

The dangerous weather conditions began early Wednesday morning in western New York and slowly moved east across upstate, hitting central New York mid-afternoon and eastern New York in the evening hours through this morning. The damaging winds hovered over each of the regions for six to eight hours before subsiding.

Crews remain dedicated to restoring power to the roughly 42,000 customers who are currently without electricity service, primarily in the hardest hit areas of the Genesee region, the North Country, the Mohawk Valley, and portions of Central and Eastern New York.

Estimated Restoration Times

Western NY: Restoration in the Buffalo/Niagara, Southwest, Genesee regions will be complete for the majority of customers by midnight tonight, with some customers in the hardest-hit areas of the Genesee region seeing power restored by noon tomorrow.

 Central NY: Restoration will be complete for the majority of customers by midnight tonight, with isolated pockets and scattered single customer outages restored in the hardest hit areas by noon tomorrow.

Mohawk Valley: Restoration will be complete for the majority of customers by noon Friday, with isolated pockets and scattered single customer outages restored in the hardest hit areas by Friday evening

North Country: : Restoration will be complete for the majority of customers by midnight Friday,  with isolated pockets and scattered single customer outages restored in the hardest hit areas by Saturday evening.

Eastern NY: Restoration will be complete in the Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Hudson areas by midnight tonight, with isolated pockets and scattered single customer outages restored by noon tomorrow.  The majority of customers in the hardest hit areas of Eastern NY, including Saratoga, Glens Falls, Warrensburg, Gloversville and Cobleskill, will have power restored by midnight Friday. Restoration for isolated pockets and scattered single customer outages in the hardest hit areas of these regions will continue into Saturday evening.

Customers who remain without power when their neighbors have been restored should call National Grid at 1-800-867-5222.

“We deeply appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we continue our focus on restoring service as quickly and safely as possible,” said Melanie Littlejohn, National Grid’s New York vice president. “We also are grateful for the support and partnership of our state, county and local first-responders and emergency coordinators as well as the support and resiliency of our communities and customers.”

Once restoration is completed, National Grid crews will remain in the field as storm cleanup continues. The company urges drivers to use extreme caution as they approach work areas, to ensure the safety of utility and other storm-response personnel.

Additionally, customers are reminded to avoid downed wires.  All wires should be considered live and should be immediately reported to National Grid at 1-800-867-5222, or by calling 911.

National Grid provides several ways for customers to learn about and report power outages during storms.  To receive free text message alerts and updates, text the word STORM to NGRID (64743).  E-mail alerts are available to customers who create an online profile on the company’s website.  All alert services can be started and stopped at the customer’s request.

Customers can see real-time outage information and report an outage on the Outage Central page of the company’s web site. National Grid also provides storm and restoration updates through Facebook and Twitter.

As a guide for understanding the power restoration process, the company offers the following:

Estimated Restoration Times

• In the early stages of a storm, restoration times on National Grid’s Outage Central site may be listed as “assessing conditions.” This is because debris, such as trees, tree limbs, and downed wires, must be cleared away so that infrastructure damage can be assessed and restoration plans can be executed.  Please see infographic below for a description of National Grid’s restoration process.
• It's normal for outage numbers and ETRs to fluctuate. The numbers can go up and down as we de-energize lines to make conditions safe for repairs. Additionally, there could be new outages that occur as the strong, damaging winds continue.
• Outage Central Reminder: Our Outage Central page shows the estimated time of restoration for communities, and reflects the estimated time for the last customer in that community to have power restored. The most accurate way for customers to check on the power restoration estimate for their specific address is to log into our Report or Check Outage page.

-###-