Isaias: Two-Thirds Of O&R Customers' Power Restored

Orange & Rockland announced a plan to finish restoring power by Tuesday night to its service area, where two-thirds of its customers lost service during Tropical Storm Isaias.

In 40 hours, crews restored power to nearly two-thirds of those roughly 200,000 customers affected by Tuesday's storm.

As of 10:44 a.m. Thursday, there were 78,732 customers still out, 28,360 in Rockland County and 18,274 in Orange County.

Restoration work will continue around the clock in Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties in New York and part of northern New Jersey.

The first steps Tuesday night and Wednesday were 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. O&R crews also had to repair the 10 transmission lines damaged by the storm. Those lines deliver bulk power into the O&R system from the electric grid.

Yesterday, Rockland officials were looking for temporary workers to stand guard over live wires, freeing up firefighters and police officers for many other duties.

Town officials in Rockland County were angry that restoring power took more than a day. In a letter to O&R Wednesday, the supervisors of Clarkstown, Haverstraw, Orangetown, Ramapo and Stony Point said just the fact that so many customers lost power in the storm was due to O&R's lack of preparedness and inadequate response. They said residents' utility rates are high and asked the company to immediately restore all service and conduct an internal review.