Central Hudson is fully mobilized, restoring electric service in the wake of a powerful Nor’easter that pummeled the valley on Saturday with strong winds and a foot of heavy, wet snow in many locations. The unseasonable snow weighed down trees and limbs still heavy with foliage on Saturday – causing thousands of branches and whole trees to rip down power lines and equipment. As a result, approximately 148,000, or nearly half of all, Central Hudson customers lost power because of the unusual October snowstorm.

Sunday’s return to sunshine and warmer temperatures will benefit the restoration effort, but utility officials are concerned that local residents may not appreciate the danger associated with downed trees. “Customers must exercise extreme caution near downed trees that could potentially hide electric lines that may still be energized – and lethal,” said Central Hudson’s President James P. Laurito. “We are working as quickly as possible to safely restore service to our customers, but we need them to be keenly aware of the potential danger associated with downed trees and limbs that could be hiding energized electric lines.

“We also once again ask for their patience as we methodically assess damage, assign crews and bring power back to the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” he said.  

Though outages are reported throughout the eight counties it serves, the most damage is concentrated in the southern portion of Central Hudson’s service territory, in Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties. As of early Sunday morning, Central Hudson estimates that 13 transmission lines, 31 distribution circuits and four substations are out of service due to the damage. In addition, there are hundreds of individual repairs that will need to be completed within local communities and neighborhoods. Laurito said estimated restoration times will be made available as they are developed.

In addition to Central Hudson’s own forces, mutual aid crews have joined the restoration effort. Additional line crew support is also en route from Tennessee. Central Hudson continues to solicit additional field forces through the mutual aid system as they become available. Meanwhile, the utility is also working with emergency management officials to address emergencies as quickly as possible.

In addition to the electric system emergency, there are also approximately 250 homes in the Hopewell Junction area that are without natural gas service due to a break in a distribution main. While the cause of the problem is under investigation and repairs are being made, Central Hudson employees have turned off service to each individual home. The process of making repairs and safely relighting the homes’ natural gas appliances will take several days to complete.

   Customers should call Central Hudson’s PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report 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, as it becomes available, 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.

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