O&R Restores More than 70% of Storm Isaias Power Outages

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:

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

Important Safety Tips

• Don’t go near any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free at 1-877-434-4100. Depending on the situation, you may also want to call your local police to divert traffic until an O&R crew arrives.
• Maintain a distance of at least 50 feet from downed wires and anything they are in contact with including puddles of water and fences. Supervise your children so that they are not in the vicinity and keep pets on a leash or otherwise secure.
• If a fallen wire is draped over a car, do not approach the car and make rescue attempts. Remain a safe distance away and try to keep the occupant of the vehicle calm. If possible, emergency personnel should handle the situation.
• Pole-top transformers --- those small grey-colored metal drums attached to the wires at the tops of most utility poles --- also should be avoided when they have been knocked to the ground.
• Portable generators pose a serious hazard if used improperly. They should be used and installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. A wrong connection could feed electricity back through the lines and endanger our repair crews. Never plug a generator into a wall unit, use it indoors or set it up outdoors near open home windows or air-handling vents.
• Have emergency equipment within reach --- portable radio, flashlights, spare batteries, first aid kit, cell phone and important medications. Keep O&R’s toll-free number 1-877-434-4100 near the phone to report power outages.
• Remember: if the base station of your cordless phone plugs into the wall, your phone will be unusable during a power outage.

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.

• At 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.

Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies, is a regulated utility. O&R provides electric service to approximately 300,000 customers in southeastern New York State (where its franchise name is Orange & Rockland) and northern New Jersey (where it’s Rockland Electric Company) and natural gas service to approximately 130,000 customers in New York. 

O&R serves the following communities in New York: Airmont, Bloomingburg, Blooming Grove, Chester Town, Chester Village, Chestnut Ridge, Clarkstown, Crawford, Deerpark, Florida, Forestburgh, Goshen Town, Goshen Village, Grand View, Greenwood Lake, Greenville, Harriman, Haverstraw Town, Haverstraw Village, Highland Falls, Highlands, Hillburn, Kaser, Kiryas Joel, Lumberland, Mamakating, Middletown, Minisink, Monroe Town, Monroe Village, Montebello, Mount Hope, New Hempstead, New Square, Nyack, Orangetown, Otisville, Palm Tree, Piermont, Pomona, Port Jervis, Ramapo, Sloatsburg, South Blooming Grove, South Nyack, Spring Valley, Stony Point, Suffern, Tuxedo Town, Tuxedo Park, Unionville, Upper Nyack, Wesley Hills, Wallkill, Warwick Town, Warwick Village, Washingtonville, Wawayanda, West Haverstraw, Woodbury, Woodbury Village, Wurtsboro. 

O&R, as Rockland Electric Company, serves the following communities in New Jersey: Allendale, Alpine, Closter, Cresskill, Demarest, Franklin Lakes, Harrington Park, Mahwah, Haworth (part), Montague, Montvale, Northvale, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan (part), Ramsey, Ringwood, Rivervale (part), Rockleigh, Saddle River (part), Upper Saddle River, Wantage (part), Vernon (part), West Milford (part), Wyckoff (part).