Less than four days after a rare autumn snowstorm interrupted electric service to 156,000 (or more than half) of its customers, Central Hudson reports that fewer than 10,500 homes and businesses remain without power as of mid-afternoon on Wednesday.

“This was a destructive storm that left a great deal of widespread damage in its wake. It has taken an organized plan of attack, adequate resources and tenacity to make this much progress in restoring our system. We will continue to bring them all to bear until every customer is back on line,” said Central Hudson President James P. Laurito.

“We are restringing wires, replacing equipment and rebuilding our electric system in literally hundreds of locations – most often to restore electricity for small numbers of customers at a time. But make no mistake: the final stage of this restoration will be the most difficult -- though we’ve completed about 1,000 repairs, we have more than 700 still to go.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, approximately 10,500 customers remain without electricity, concentrated in Dutchess (6,000), Orange (2,200) and Putnam (1,600) counties.

Laurito noted that the extent of damage has now forced some neighboring utilities to extend their estimates of full restoration, and that some Northeastern utilities are projecting that their customers may be without power for a full week from the unseasonable October snowstorm that initially impacted 3 million customers.

“We continue to predict that we will get the lights back for many of these remaining customers by tonight. This afternoon, we began contacting those residents who may not have service restored to advise them that they should consider making alternate arrangements for shelter overnight,” Laurito said.

He once again urged residents to take advantage of warming centers and shelters; to stay away from downed lines and trees that might be hiding energized wires; to never warm their home with an appliance that was not designed for heating purposes; and to disconnect sensitive appliances that could be damaged when power is restored.

Customers should call Central Hudson’s PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report downed lines and/or their power condition, and they are encouraged to use the automated reporting system. Customers with access to a computer may also report their power condition via the utility’s website, www.CentralHudson.com, by using the StormCentral function.

Information regarding service restoration estimates can be obtained by phone and on-line, and updates are posted on Facebook and Twitter. A mobile version of the utility’s website, including StormCentral, can be accessed by web-enabled cell phones and mobile devices at http://mobile.CentralHudson.com. Free Central Hudson mobile applications for Android-based and Apple devices are also available by logging onto www.CentralHudson.com/mobileapp.

#    #    #