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Most Dutchess Power Outages Expected To Be Restored By Sunday Evening

Less than 20 hours after a powerful storm with 60 mile-per-hour wind gusts ripped through the Mid-Hudson, electric service has been restored to nearly 75 percent of impacted customers. Crews continue to restore electric service to homes and businesses, and as of 2 p.m. on Sunday, power has been returned to nearly 24,000 of the initial 32,000 impacted customers. Less than 9,000 in Dutchess, Orange and Columbia remain without service.

Central Hudson repair crew.

Central Hudson repair crew.

 Photo Credit: Contributed
Daily Voice

Most outages in the three counties are expected to be restored by Sunday night. In hardest-hit Ulster County, more than 6,000 customers remain without service. While crews continue make progress, repair work will continue through Monday night.

Residents are cautioned to use care when traveling, as some roads are closed or blocked by fallen trees and wires. More than 200 damage locations remain, and crews are replacing more than 25 broken poles. More than 300 line and tree personnel are working to restore electric service, and additional crews will be available on Monday.

Ulster County sustained the heaviest damage with more than 17,000 service interruptions. The storm also caused more than 7,500 service interruptions in Dutchess County and nearly 4,000 in Central Hudson’s service area within Orange County.

During service restorations, customers are reminded to:

  • Stay at least 30 feet away from downed power lines, and remember that lines may be entangled and hidden in fallen trees. Assume all downed lines are live;
  • Beware of fallen trees and limbs, and use caution or traveling;
  • Avoid the use of candles for illumination;
  • Follow the manufacturer’s safety instructions on the use of emergency generators, and be sure to shut off the main breaker when in use and operate the units outdoors;
  • Never use outdoor gas or charcoal grills indoors, as they pose a fire hazard and over time can give off deadly carbon monoxide gas. Use these appliances only outdoors with proper ventilation; and
  • Operate cars and motor vehicles outdoors only, and never in the garage.

Customers can communicate with Central Hudson and keep abreast of restoration efforts before, during and following storms and emergencies:

By phone: call the PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714, and use the automated system;

On the web: visit the CenHub - My Account section at www.CentralHudson.com to report outages and obtain restoration updates.

Through Social Media: “Like” Central Hudson on Facebook (www.facebook.com/CentralHudson) and “Follow” on Twitter (www.twitter.com/CentralHudson).

Via smart phones: A mobile version of the Central Hudson’s website can be accessed by web-enabled cell phones and mobile devices at http://mobile.CentralHudson.com. Free Central Hudson mobile applications for Android, Apple and Blackberry devices are also available by logging onto CentralHudson.com/mobileapp.

By text messaging: Customers should enroll in the Central Hudson’s Texting Program to use text messaging (SMS) to report their power condition and obtain repair status. Customers will also receive text messages when a power interruption is predicted to have occurred at their location. To enroll, visit CentralHudson.com/Alerts.

More information on preparing for storms and emergencies and communicating with Central Hudson is available at www.CentralHudson.com.

For real-time Dutchess news updates in your Facebook feed, be sure to "Like" Daily Voice's Dutchess County Community Forum page on Facebook by clicking here.

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