O&R To Work Through The Night Restoring Power To Those Still Out; Severe Storm Knocked Out Service To 33,900 O&R Customers Today
O&R company and contractor overhead line crews, and contractor tree removal experts are working through the night tonight to restore power to the remaining 2,034 of the over 33,900 O&R customers whose power was knocked out by a destructive rain and windstorm that lashed the area today.
O&R already has restored power to nearly 31,800 customers whose electric service was interrupted by the strong storm whose damaging wind gusts, exceeding 50 m.p.h. at times, knocked down trees, ripped up power lines and broke utility poles.
- O&R expects to restore electric service by 7 a.m. on Tuesday, April 14 to 95% of its customers in Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties.
- Customers in Bergen and Passaic counties in NJ should expect to have power restored by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
In attempt to help keep everyone safe from the coronavirus, O&R personnel have been instructed to practice social distancing with each other and members of the public when responding to emergency calls. O&R is following the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines during the health emergency and asks that customers also keep a social distance from workers so they may do their jobs safely.
Also, for safety’s sake, don’t touch or approach any downed wire. Assume the downed wire is energized and dangerous. Do not try to move them or touch them with any object. Be mindful that downed wires can be hidden from view by tree limbs, leaves or standing water.
Here are the customer outage numbers as of 9:30 p.m. this evening.
NEW YORK
- Rockland: 648 total customers affected. Top three communities are: 259 in Clarkstown, 100 in Orangetown and 98 in Ramapo.
- Orange: 1,179 total customers affected. Top three communities are: 376 in Monroe Village, 258 in Monroe Town and 188 in Highland Falls.
- Sullivan: 1 total customer affected in Forestburgh
NEW JERSEY
- Bergen: 275 customers affected. Top communities are: 89 in Saddle River, 78 in Allendale and 53 in Mahwah.
- Passaic: 15 total customers affected. Top communities are: 8 in West Milford and 7 in Ringwood.
For the most up-to-date outage information, please go to O&R’s Outage Map.
The following video describes the typical storm repair and power restoration process:
There are several ways customers can report outages and check service restoration status:
- Go to the O&R website from any computer or web-enabled mobile device;
- Use the O&R mobile app from your iPhone, iPad or Android device;
- Text “OUT” to 69678 (myORU); or
- Call Customer Assistance at 1-877-434-4100
For more information, visit O&R’s Storm Center at www.oru.com.
To help its customers prepare to weather a storm, O&R offers these tips:
- For safety’s sake, don’t touch or approach any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free 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.
Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies. O&R is a regulated utility that 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).