03/14/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/14/2023 09:45
Orange & Rockland emergency response crews early this morning are repairing storm damage and restoring power to about 250 customers in Orange County whose electric service was knocked out by the late-winter nor'easter that hit the region last night. About another 50 customers whose electric service was interrupted by the storm were restored by crews working overnight.
O&R company and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal experts, customer service operators and the other O&R emergency response personnel were activated and deployed last night. O&R also has obtained enough overhead line mutual aid workers to increase the company's overhead field workforce for this event by nearly five times its usual size.
O&R expects light snow from the storm to fall through the day today until about 8 p.m. tonight when strong gusty winds are expected to develop. Those winds, which could be damaging, are expected to continue into late Wednesday afternoon. O&R plans to remain at an elevated storm alert emergency response level until that high-wind threat dissipates.
For safety's sake, O&R warns the public not to touch or approach any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free 1-877-434-4100. Depending on the situation, you may also consider calling your local police to divert traffic from the downed wire's location until an O&R crew arrives.
Light to moderate snow is now expected to continue until about 8 p.m. today across O&R's service area. After 8 p.m. tonight, winds are expected to become gusty. Prevailing winds will range from 15 to 30 mph with gusts from 40 to 50 mph. Winds will remain gusty, peaking between midnight and 4 a.m. Wednesday. Winds slowly diminish later in the day Wednesday as this storm system exits off the coast.
If you experience a power outage, don't assume that O&R automatically knows about it. You can report it and check to see when your lights will be back on through:
For the latest information about power outages, please view O&R's Outage Map.
For a brief video that provides a step-by-step guide to the Outage Map's basic operation:
Once the weather clears enough to safely assess damage and begin electric service restoration, O&R crews will give priority to clearing downed wires blocking roads and making repairs to critical and emergency facilities (police and fire stations, and hospitals, for example) and to those locations where the repair will provide power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. Then, crews will restore smaller outages and individual customers' outages.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it's Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York.
O&R serves the following communities in New York: Airmont, Bloomingburg, Blooming Grove, Chester Town, Chester Village, Chestnut Ridge, Clarkstown, Crawford, Deerpark, Florida, Forestburgh, Goshen Town, Goshen Village, Grand View, Greenwood Lake, Greenville, Harriman, Haverstraw Town, Haverstraw Village, Highland Falls, Highlands, Hillburn, Kaser, Kiryas Joel, Lumberland, Mamakating, Middletown, Minisink, Monroe Town, Monroe Village, Montebello, Mount Hope, New Hempstead, New Square, Nyack, Orangetown, Otisville, Palm Tree, Piermont, Pomona, Port Jervis, Ramapo, Sloatsburg, South Blooming Grove, South Nyack, Spring Valley, Stony Point, Suffern, Tuxedo Town, Tuxedo Park, Unionville, Upper Nyack, Wesley Hills, Wallkill, Warwick Town, Warwick Village, Washingtonville, Wawayanda, West Haverstraw, Woodbury, Woodbury Village, Wurtsboro.
O&R, as Rockland Electric Company, serves the following communities in New Jersey:
Allendale, Alpine, Closter, Cresskill, Demarest, Franklin Lakes, Harrington Park, Mahwah, Haworth (part), Montague, Montvale, Northvale, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan (part), Ramsey, Ringwood (part), Rivervale (part), Rockleigh, Saddle River (part), Upper Saddle River, Wantage (part), Vernon (part), West Milford (part), Wyckoff (part).