O&R Says Fewer Than 620 Remain Without Power After Wind Storm

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Thousands of customers in Rockland County have had their power restored since the overnight wind storms knocked out service to more than 17,000 customers, but the utility says a few hundred still remain without electricity.

Orange and Rockland Utilities said they are continuing to repair damage and restore power outages that resulted from a rain and severe windstorm, packing gusts of over 50 mph, that passed through the region beginning about 6 p.m. Wednesday and continuing through Thursday morning.

As of 2:30 p.m. today, O&R says approximately 620 customers remained without power. The company estimates that electric service will be restored to nearly all those customers by 11 p.m.

O&R crews working through the night last night and through the day today restored electric service to 17,666 customers whose power was knocked out by the storm.

O&R company and contractor overhead line crews and tree removal experts, customer service operators and the rest of the members of the O&R emergency response team mobilized at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening ahead of the severe weather, according to the company.

The company said that if home or business owners experience a power outage, they should not assume that O&R automatically knows about it. Outages can be reported and the status of the repairs checked a number of different ways:

• Report an Electric Service Problem | Orange & Rockland (oru.com) from any computer or web-based mobile device.
• O&R mobile app from your iPhone, iPad or Android device — download via Apple Store or Google Play.
• Text messaging by texting "OUT" to 69678 (myORU) or
• Call 1-877-434-4100.

The latest information about the recent power outages can be found on the O&R’s Outage Map.
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.
The company also offer important safety tips to keep in mind as crew work to restore service.

• 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.