PEARL RIVER – Orange and Rockland Utilities has mobilized its full complement of company and contractor overhead line technicians and tree removal experts to expedite system repairs and electric service restoration as needed for customers whose power has been or could be knocked out today by the high gusty winds and heavy rains entering the region.
High winds and heavy rains can cause power line damage and electric service interruptions. O&R crews will be ready to repair damage and restore service as needed through the duration of the storm, and its aftermath.
Since midnight, O&R has restored electric service to 2,560 customers whose power was knocked out by storm activity. The largest single outage was caused by a tree that was knocked down by the storm’s winds activity onto overhead electric wires in Pomona.
As of 10:30 a.m., there are 13 customers without electric service due to the storm.
- NEW YORK — 13
- Rockland: 11 customers
- Orange: 2 customers
Sullivan: 0 .
For the most up-to-date outage information, please go to O&R’s Outage Map:
Forecasters predict Isaias will bring heavy rain – three to six inches possible – and increasing winds (25-30 mph sustained with gusts of 45-50 along the Hudson River in Rockland and northern New Jersey; otherwise 15-30 sustained with gusts of 35-50 mph possible) to the area today. Heaviest rainfall and strongest winds are expected from 1-4 p.m. The storm is expected to diminish significantly through the evening as it leaves the area.
O&R says for safety’s sake, don’t touch or approach any downed wire. Strong winds may knock trees and branches onto power lines, causing customers to lose service. Once it is safe to assess damage and begin restoration, crews will give priority to making repairs to critical and emergency facilities (police and fire stations, and hospitals, for example) and to those locations that will provide power to the most customers quickly. Then, crews will restore smaller outages and individual customers’ outages.
As an added safety precaution, O&R personnel have been instructed to practice social distancing with each other and members of the public when responding to emergency calls in an attempt to keep everyone safe from the coronavirus. O&R asks members of the public as well to maintain appropriate social distancing when they encounter O&R employees working in the field, to provide for mutual safety.
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:
- At www.oru.com/outage 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.
Damage assessment, site safety, customer service operations and the wide array of O&R teams that support those functions have already been deployed to aid in the restoration effort. In addition, O&R has hired 120 more contractor overhead line technicians to help in the recovery and is seeking 80 more.
The following video describes the typical storm repair and power restoration process: https://youtu.be/JeGU8ID4_m0
