7,500+ Central Hudson Customers Waiting For Power

MID-HUDSON VALLEY, NY — More than 7,500 Central Hudson customers remain without electricity since yesterday's powerful thunderstorms tore through the mid-Hudson Valley Tuesday afternoon.

According to the electricity provider's website, 7,500 customers in Dutchess, 185 in Orange and 430 in Ulster counties are waiting for the power to come back on Wednesday.

That is down from the more than 20,000 customers who lost electricity when the storm's 70 mph winds hit.

Central Hudson said it expects service to be restored to 95 percent of its impacted customers by:

• 5 p.m. Wednesday in Orange County (complete restoration by 8 p.m.)
• 6 p.m. Wednesday in Ulster County (complete by 10 p.m.)
• 10 p.m. Wednesday in Dutchess County (complete for northern and southern Dutchess expected by 2 p.m.)

The company said the hardest hit areas of central Dutchess — Hyde Park, Pleasant Valley, Millbrook and LaGrange — are expected to be back online by noon Thursday.

Central Hudson will also distribute dry ice and bottled water on Wednesday at the following locations and times:

• Highland Lowe’s Home Improvement, 650 Route 299, Highland – Starting at 10 a.m.
• Poughkeepsie Home Depot, 3470 North Rd., Poughkeepsie – Starting at 11 a.m.
• Union Vale Fire House, 3373 Route 82, Verbank – Starting at 11 a.m.

Ryan Hawthorne, vice president of electric engineering and operations at Central Hudson, said the power company has a field force of more than 340 line and tree professionals working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

"Tuesday's storms moved quickly and caused damage to the electrical grid in more than 400 individual locations including 11 broken poles and 327 reports of wires down," he said.

Hawthorne said the crews will work throughout the day and night as long as weather conditions permit, adding the potential for thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening may result in additional outages.