Press release:
More than 1,400 National Grid line, tree and service workers in Western New York are focused on public safety and are making steady progress in removing downed wires, trees, tree limbs, broken poles and other hazards and restoring power after a severe windstorm swept across the region on Sunday.
Crews will continue to work around the clock on the labor-intensive cleanup and restoration efforts.
As of 11 a.m. fewer than 9,000 customers remain without service, primarily in the hardest hit areas, including portions of Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. The storm, with wind gusts of more than 65 mph, impacted 51,000 customers.
A spokesman for National Grid said in Genesee County there remains one customer outage Oakfield, one in Pavilion, one Stafford, and 15 in Attica, 18 total.
Crews will continue their work in high winds and challenging conditions throughout the day to restore service to customers as quickly and safely as possible.
National Grid is distributing bottled water and dry ice to impacted customers today at the following locations:
- Dunkirk Training Grounds, 665 Brigham Road, Dunkirk from 1 to 6 p.m.
- JFK Recreation Center, 114 Hickory St., Buffalo from now until 6 p.m.
The company had initially planned a distribution location in Batavia. But since the number of impacted customers in that area is lower than anticipated, it was decided to concentrate the dry ice and bottled water distribution efforts in the two other areas, to help customers who need it the most.
“Storm damage across Western New York includes uprooted trees, broken poles anddowned power lines,” said Matt Barnett, National Grid’s vice president of New York Electric Operations.
“In addition to performing critical public safety activities, our crews are assessing damage to our system and equipment so that we can refine our restoration estimates and restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”
