Morning Storms Cause 3,000+ Power Outages In Orange, Rockland Counties

PEARL RIVER, NY —Orange and Rockland Utilities crews are repairing storm damage and restoring electric service to the more than 3,000 customers who lost power in the Hudson Valley Thursday morning as heavy rain and thunderstorms continue.

Company and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal experts, customer service operators and the rest of the members of the emergency response team mobilized at 7 a.m. and will remain throughout any upcoming storms.

As of 10:15 am, about 6,000 customers remained out of service in the following areas:

NEW YORK: 3,745

• Orange County: 2,613
• Rockland County: 1,129
• Sullivan County: 3

NEW JERSEY: 2,294

• Bergen County: 2
• Passaic County: 2,292

For safety’s sake, O&R warns the public not to touch or approach any downed wire. Assume the
wire 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.

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.

Important Safety Tips

• For safety’s sake, don’t 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 want to call your local police to divert traffic until an O&R crew arrives.
• Maintain a distance of at least 50 feet from downed wires and anything they are in contact with including puddles of water and fences. Supervise your children so that they are not in the vicinity and keep pets on a leash or otherwise secure.
• If a fallen wire is draped over a car, do not approach the car to make rescue attempts.
• Remain a safe distance away and try to keep the occupant of the vehicle calm. If possible, emergency personnel should handle the situation.
• Pole-top transformers — those small, grey-colored metal drums attached to the wires at the tops of most utility poles — also should be avoided when they have been knocked to the ground.
• Portable generators pose a serious hazard if used improperly. They should be used and installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. A wrong connection could feed electricity back through the lines and endanger our repair crews. Never plug a generator into a wall unit, use it indoors or set it up outdoors near open home windows or air-handling vents.
• Have emergency equipment within reach --- portable radio, flashlights, spare batteries, first aid kit, cell phone and important medications. Keep O&R’s toll-free number 1-877-434-4100 near the phone to report power outages.

Remember: if the base station of your cordless phone plugs into the wall, your phone will be unusable during a power outage

How To Prepare Your EV for A Power Outage

• Just as is the case with traditional gasoline vehicles, you need to ensure your electric car is fueled up in the event there is a power outage that lasts longer than expected.
• Guidance is to always keep your EV charged between 75-90% in case of an emergency.
• While EVs don’t need a gas station, they do need to be charged up, which is easily done at home.
• All EVs come with a plug and adapter that are compatible with the outlets in your garage or outside your house. Furthermore, there are Level 2 chargers available for your home. These charge your vehicle at a higher rate than a regular outlet because they use 220 volts, just like what a clothes dryer uses.
• Can’t charge at home? Take your vehicle to a publicly accessible Level 2 or DCFC Fast Charger