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O&R Works to Return Service to 26,000 Still Out from Storm

Nearly Another 20,000 Restored to Power Overnight

Orange & Rockland (O&R) company and contractor overhead line crews, tree removal experts and more than 140 additional mutual aid line technicians worked through the night last night to restore power to almost 20,000 of the approximately 46,000 customers whose power was knocked out so far by heavy rain and strong wind gusts that continue today to pummel the region.

 

The mutual aid crews obtained by O&R have doubled O&R’s emergency field response resources and O&R employees have been recalled from vacation to aid in the service restoration effort.

 

How restoration works

When service restoration begins, O&R crews give priority to making repairs that clear major community roads – work that also restores power to a sizable number of neighboring customers. At the same time, crews will restore power to critical and emergency facilities (police and fire stations, and hospitals, for example). Then, crews will focus on getting power back on to those locations that will return electricity to the most customers quickly. Crews then will work their way down to restore smaller outages and individual customer’s outages.

 

The following video describes the typical storm repair and power restoration process:

 

Outage Numbers

Here are the current outage numbers by county, and the top three communities with outages at this hour in those counties as of 8:00 am today. For the latest outage numbers, please refer to our outage map at oru.com.

 

New York - 20,352

 

Rockland County - 13,335

These are the three hardest hit communities:

Clarkstown - 5,776

Orangetown - 2,603

Airmont - 1,285

 

Orange County - 6,414

These are the three hardest hit communities.

Port Jervis - 1,698

Deerpark - 1,582

Goshen - 1,399

  

Sullivan County - 846

This is the hardest hit community.

Mamakating - 846

 

New Jersey - 5,175

 

Bergen County - 4,399

These are the hardest hit communities.

Montvale - 1,484

Closter - 1,023

Cresskill - 698

 

Passaic County - 419

These are the hardest hit communities.

Ringwood - 374

West Milford - 45

 

Sussex County - 0

 

How to report an outage

If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it. You can report it and check to see when your lights will be back on by:

 

  • Visiting www.oru.com/ReportOutage from any computer or web-based mobile device
  • Accessing O&R’s mobile app from your iPhone, iPad or Android device – download via Apple Store or Google Play
  • Text messaging by texting “OUT” to 69678 (myORU)
  • Calling 1-877-434-4100

 

Be Safe – Don’t go near downed wires

O&R urges its customers to stay clear of downed electric wires. Don’t go near any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free at 1-877-434-4100. If the situation requires urgent action, call your local police to divert traffic until an O&R crew arrives.

 

Safety

O&R offers the following storm tips to help customers stay safe and weather the possible effects of a storm:

 

  • Do not go near downed electrical wires – maintain a distance of at least 50 feet. Treat downed wires as if they are live. Never attempt to move them or touch them with any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by snow, tree limbs, leaves or water.
  • Report all downed wires to O&R at 1-877-434-4100 and your local police department to divert traffic until O&R crews arrive. If a power line falls on your car while you’re in it, stay inside the vehicle and wait for emergency personnel.
  • 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.

     

In addition, O&R personnel have been instructed to ensure all safety protocols when responding to emergency calls to keep everyone safe from the coronavirus. O&R asks members of the public to maintain appropriate social distance when they encounter O&R employees working in the field, to provide for mutual safety.

 

About Orange & Rockland

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).