Central Hudson Restores Electric Service to 85 Percent of
Customers Impacted by Powerful Snowstorms

Crews progress through smaller, localized outages

Electric service has been restored to nearly 85 percent of Central Hudson’s customers impacted last week by back-to-back storms. With most of the major circuits back on line, the majority of the remaining work lies in the tedious task of addressing repairs that will restore electric service to smaller groups of customers, and even individual homes. Utility officials estimate that the vast majority of customers will have their service restored by Wednesday night.

Of the 25,000 customers remaining without power Monday evening, outages were located by county approximately as follows: Dutchess: 6,400; Greene: 40; Orange: 8,900; Putnam 600; Sullivan: 600; and Ulster: 9,000. Outage locations by municipality may be found in the StormCentral section of the Central Hudson website (www.CentralHudson.com) by clicking in order on the “Outage Map,” “Summary,” and “Outages by County” tabs, and then selecting an individual county to review.

The full complement of 1,000 workers will continue to repair lines, replace broken poles, remove fallen trees and address the many smaller localized outages on Tuesday. Some new cases of outages have been reported as broken limbs continue to fall on lines in certain hard-hit areas. Customers are encouraged to contact Central Hudson to report any new outage conditions.

Emergency Support
Emergency shelters have been established by the Red Cross and other agencies (see a complete list at www.CentralHudson.com), and Central Hudson is distributing dry ice and bottled water free of charge. That distribution will continue as long as needed; updated schedules will be made available to local media outlets and will be available on Central Hudson’s website, www.CentralHudson.com, in the StormCentral section.

To Report a Power Outage
Those customers with access to a computer or compatible cell phone should report their power outage via the website at www.CentralHudson.com, in the StormCentral section, where they can also access information regarding the extent of outages; once service restoration estimates become available, they can be found on the website as well. Customers may also contact the utility by calling (845) 452-2700 or 1 (800) 527-2714 to report a power outage, and they are encouraged to use the automated reporting system to do so.

 Between last Tuesday and this morning, the utility’s telephone system handled 304,000 calls (as compared to the approximately 15,000 calls that are handled in a routine week). Of those calls, nearly 50,000 spoke with a Customer Service Representative and the balance reported their condition via the utility’s automated system.  In all, 92,500 orders regarding outages were registered. During that same period, there have been nearly 90,000 hits on the StormCentral section of the Central Hudson website.

Important Safety Reminders:
Customers are requested to check on frail or elderly neighbors, relatives or friends – including any who may rely on electrically operated life-sustaining equipment – and encourage them to seek alternate shelter, as it may take several days before their power is restored.

All local residents are reminded to stay clear of downed or sagging wires – they could be lethal. As fallen wires may be hidden by trees, snow banks or debris, extreme caution should be used when moving through an outage zone.  If a power line falls on a vehicle, occupants should stay inside and wait for rescue crews. Customers should not heat their homes with an unvented heater, gas range or any similar appliance, as they can produce deadly carbon monoxide. Generators should be operated only in a vented, dry location; outdoor gas grills should never be used to heat indoors because they pose a fire hazard and can give off deadly carbon monoxide gas.

For updates, safety tips, list of shelter locations and more information on how to prepare for storms, visit www.CentralHudson.com.

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