PEARL RIVER – Electric service has been restored to more than 70 percent of the 220,000 O&R customers whose power was knocked out Tuesday by Tropical Storm Isaias.
Approximately 66,000 customers remain out of service. O&R crews, contractors and tree removal experts are working around the clock until all customers’ service is restored. The vast majority of customers who lost power are expected to have it back by Tuesday, August 11 at 11 p.m.
O&R President and CEO Robert Sanchez said, “We are keenly aware of the disruption that the tropical storm damage has caused in the communities we serve. Many of our customers, employees, neighbors and friends and their families have been inconvenienced. We are doing everything we can to help. We are committed to repairing the storm damage to our equipment and restoring electric service as safely and swiftly as possible.”
O&R follows an established restoration process to help restore power safely. Today, O&R is working on a number of important fronts to continue assessing damage, addressing public safety issues, clearing critical roads and restoring locations that provide critical services such as hospitals, nursing homes and police and fire stations.
Today’s work includes:
- Dispatching electric repair crews throughout the service area to restore power to the lines and equipment that will bring power back to the most customers in the fewest hours possible.
- Deploying tree removal crews to clear downed trees from damage locations to open roadways and prepare the area for electric service repair.
- Repairing five transmission lines in West Haverstraw, Pomona, Mongaup, Franklin Lakes and, Pearl River. Seven additional transmission lines that were knocked out of service have been repaired and are back online.
- Restoring power to over 650 essential service locations, including two nursing homes and 30 schools.
- Aiding road opening work on 130 storm-closed roads.
The following video describes the typical storm repair and power restoration process: https://youtu.be/JeGU8ID4_m0
O&R’s entire 1,100-person workforce has been fully mobilized to restore service, support field work and address customer needs. In addition to O&R’s crews, restoration efforts are being supported by over 300 additional contractor overhead line technicians. O&R is seeking another 450 overhead line technicians from its mutual aid and contractor partners.
For the most up-to-date outage information, please go to O&R’s Outage Map. Here are the customer outage numbers as of 1:00 p.m. today:
NEW YORK
Rockland: 22,818
Orange: 13,230
Sullivan: 2,981
NEW JERSEY
Bergen: 22,494
Passaic: 4,501
Sussex: 105
