Central Hudson presses to repair storm outages
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. expects to have most remaining power outages fixed by late Friday night, a utility spokesman said Thursday.
John Maserjian said the company had approximately 470 line crews and 180 tree trimmers working primarily in southern Dutchess County and the northeastern portion of Orange County, where the majority of power outages from Tuesday’s violent storms remained. Most affected customers are expected to be back online by 11 p.m. Friday, he said.
“But we recognize there are areas of significant damage that may take until the weekend to repair,” Maserjian said.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Central Hudson reported 349 active outages affecting 23,694 customers. Of those, the vast majority were in Orange County, where 15,312 customers were without service. In Dutchess County, 6,338 customers were without power, and in Ulster County, 700 were affected. Most of the Ulster County outages were in Plattekill and Shawangunk.
At the peak of the outages, Central Hudson reported 74,000 of its roughly 300,000 customers were in the dark.
“The amount of tree damage remains a concern, as substantial work remains to restore electric service to all our customers impacted by the storm,” Charles Freni, Central Hudson’s senior vice president of customer services and transmission and distribution, said in a prepared statement. “Repairs will begin to restore service to fewer and fewer customers as we work in neighborhoods and along individual streets.”
The severe storms that moved through the region Tuesday killed three people in the Hudson Valley and spawned at least five tornadoes, including one that formed in Saugerties.
A woman who died when a tree fell on her car on the Mount Saint Mary College campus was an Ulster County resident. Town of Newburgh police said Lisa Resnick, 58, of Rosendale, was alone in her vehicle around 5 p.m. Tuesday when a tree fell on it, killing her.
In the city of Newburgh, 11-year-old Gina Garzon was killed when a tree fell on a vehicle she was in on Robinson Avenue about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday. Her mother suffered minor injuries.
In the Rockland County village of Chestnut Ridge, an 80-year-old woman killed around the same time when a tree landed on her car as she drove on Red Schoolhouse Road.
The National Weather Service confirmed tornadoes in Saugerties, Newburgh, two towns of Putnam County and Yulan in Sullivan County. Also, a macroburst in southern Dutchess County with wind speeds topping 100 mph cut a path approximately 3 miles wide and 8 miles long.
The weather service said a tornado with estimated top winds of 90 mph formed along Route 212 in the western portion of Saugerties and then traveled from Saugerties to Tivoli, across the Hudson River, between 2:29 and 2:35 p.m. Tuesday. The tornado was about 528 feet wide and traveled roughly 5 miles before dissipating just south of the Clermont State Historic Site, the weather service said, adding that no injuries resulted.
Central Hudson has been distributing dry ice and bottled water in areas still without power. In Ulster County, dry ice and bottled water were being made available while supplies lasted at the Wallkill Fire House.