O&R Brings In Extra Crews For Tuesday Snowstorm

PEARL RIVER, NY —Orange and Rockland Utilities officials announced Monday afternoon that the they have obtained additional overhead line crews as a storm is expected to start roaring through the region just after midnight tonight and tapering off Tuesday afternoon.

SEE: Path Of Nor'Easter Due Overnight Shifting Southward: HV Forecast

The snow totals predicted for the storm have increased from earlier reports and are now expected to blanket the region with as much as 4 to 10 inches of heavy, wet snow. Wind gusts could be as high as 35 mph, O&R officials said.

The company will mobilize its emergency response workforce to repair potential damage and restore possible power outages that could result from the nor’easter.

O&R company and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal experts, customer service
operators and the other emergency response personnel will be activated and deployed
early Tuesday morning.

Also, O&R has secured approximately 200 mutual aid workers, which will substantially increase the size of its available overhead line field forces.

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 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.

If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it.

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.

• 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.