O&R's Restoring Power to Last 2,500 Customers Out From Storm

About 2,500 Orange & Rockland electric customers remain without power at this hour as a result of a powerful storm, featuring high winds and heavy rains, that roared through the region beginning Dec. 24 at 7 p.m. through Dec. 25 at 8 a.m.

O&R company, contractor and mutual aid crews so far have restored electric service to over 60,000 customers whose power was knocked out by the storm.

O&R estimates that 95% of the customers impacted during the storm in Orange, Sullivan Rockland Bergen and Passaic counties will be restored to service by 11:00 pm tonight. Sussex County has no outages at this hour.

O&R will continue its repair and restoration work until all its customers who can be restored to service are back in power. Typically, the most challenging and complicated service restoration projects are tackled in the final stage of service restoration. Those projects take longer than typical restorations because the damage is generally more severe and requires more rebuilding and replacement than repairing. In some cases, O&R cannot restore service until the customer makes repairs to his/her building so the building can safely receive electric service.    

O&R’s entire workforce has been fully mobilized to restore service, support field work and address customer needs. To accelerate that service restoration, O&R obtained 330 line technicians, which increased its line technician workforce by approximately three-fold over its normal staffing.

Outage numbers

For the most up-to-date outage information, please go to O&R’s Outage Map. Here are the customer outage numbers as of 10 a.m. on Dec. 26:

NEW YORK - 1,981

Rockland - 1,452

Orange - 441

Sullivan - 82

NEW JERSEY - 561

Bergen - 385

Passaic - 176

Sussex - 0

How restoration works

O&R follows an established restoration process to help restore power safely. Today, O&R proceeded 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. The next step is to move on to restore power to the lines and equipment that will bring power back to the most people in the fewest hours possible. After that, as soon as we can, we restore all other customers who have lost power.

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

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.

In addition, O&R personnel have been instructed to follow 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.

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 through:

• At www.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.

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).