National Grid’s upstate New York field force of more than 3,200 workers has restored service to more than 80,000 of the 91,500 customers impacted by the destructive winter storm that affected Eastern and Northern New York on Friday.
The storm, which brought more than a foot of heavy, wet snow to the region with localized accumulations between 18 to 28 inches in some areas, caused widespread damage to the company’s electric transmission and distribution systems. In addition to downed wires, damaged trees and tree limbs, crews have been challenged by impassable roads and difficult-to-reach equipment repairs in remote areas.
The hardest hit areas were the Adirondacks and northern tier of New York; infrastructure in Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Warren and Washington counties all sustained damage.
“The damage to our infrastructure was significant, particularly in the most remote parts of our service area,” said Matt Barnett, Vice President of New York Electric Operations. “Safely restoring service in these areas could take significant time. We understand the inconvenience of being without power, and our crews are out in full force to restore to our customers as quickly and safely as possible.”
The company is providing the following general estimated times of restoration for customers who remain without service. Power is being consistently restored to customers in these regions and ETRs are updated on the company’s Outage Central site. Additionally, customers can check on the power restoration estimate for their specific address by logging into our Report or Check an Outage page.Eastern New York:
- Essex, Washington and Warren counties – 95% of affected customers in these counties will be restored by Sunday at 11:30 p.m.
Northern New York:
- Franklin and St. Lawrence counties – 95% of affected customers in these counties will be restored by Sunday at 6 p.m.
- Isolated and scattered single outages in the hardest hit areas will be restored overnight or into the Sunday morning.
The company’s extensive resources will remain in the region until the last outage is repaired.
Barnett added, “I want to extend my gratitude to the many police, fire, public works, municipal officials, and other volunteers who continue to support our customers and our communities during the post-storm recovery.”
