Strong winds cause thousands to lose power
ALBANY, N.Y. » Thousands of people lost power in the Capital Region on Friday night as strong winds toppled trees and power lines.
National Grid reported Saturday morning that 12,312 customers in Saratoga County were without power. That number included more than 2,000 customers around Saratoga Lake, more than 1,700 customers in the town of Malta, and more than 1,000 customers in the area of Greenfield, Greenfield Center and Porter Corners.
In the Spa City, fewer than 100 customers were without power Saturday morning.
By early Saturday afternoon, National Grid was reporting about 4,000 cus- tomers in the county had power restored
In Rensselaer County, 1,892 customers lost power Friday night. Those customers were mainly in Troy, where 1,792 lost power.
However, by Saturday afternoon, only 195 customers in Rensselaer County — including 20 in Troy — lacked power.
On Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo directed the National Guard to deploy personnel to Washington County — where there were more than 5,000 power outages — to assist local emergency responders with tree and debris removal.
“In the wake of yesterday’s storms, we will ensure that all impacted areas receive the help and resources they need to restore power and return to normalcy,” Cuomo said in a news release issued Saturday afternoon. “Rest assured, National Guard and state agency personnel will remain in the field working with our local partners until recovery efforts are complete.”
The outages occurred as severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches were issued for much of the Capital Region on Friday evening. The storms — which also hit the Mohawk Valley and North Country — accompanied by winds of 40 to 60 mph, knocked out power to over 100,000 customers and toppled trees and limbs, damaging homes in these regions, the release said.
Reports indicated wind speeds of over 60 miles per hour were recorded in Saratoga and Montgomery counties.
However, the National Weather Service in Albany said forecasts calls for rela- tively calm weather Sunday.
While showers are in the forecast for Sunday, only a tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain is expected. And sunny skies are in the forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.