O&R To Post Estimated Restoration Times

Update at 10:45 p.m. Oct. 31

Orange & Rockland reports power restored to 50,000 customers as of 10 p.m. Wednesday night and 192,000 remain without power.

Update at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 31

Orange & Rockland is reporting 76,000 people in Rockland County are without power as of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. Of the 230,000 customers who lost power due to Hurricane Sandy, 40,000 have had their electricity restored.

By 4 p.m. O&R completed repairs on 13 of its 27 damaged transmission lines, seven of 17 substations, and 20 of its 105 downed distribution circuits

According to Cecille Jones of O&R, the company will start posting restoration times on its website, www.oru.com, by Thursday.

They continue have heard complaints from customers not seeing workers in the field and stress that their primary focus is still on rebuilding transmission circuits and substations needed to provide power to customers. 

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At the Wednesday morning meeting in front of Nyack Village Hall, Mayor Jen Laird White gave an O&R update. She and other officials just got off a conference call with them this morning.

"It's a grim power situation right now. There are still 73,000 people without power in Rockland County right now … Because of downed trees and wires, they had to rebuild all the things that feeds our power lines. We have little local outages, but really the big system is destroyed right now. They have to rebuild that," she said. 

All of the Village of Nyack is without power. O&R is saying it'll be 10 days from the day of the storm and "that we all need to be prepared. We (Nyack Village and other public officials) are going to keep helping as best we can."

"Let them know one time if you’re out. Just make one call. If you can’t make the call, let us know and we’ll make the call for you. After that, don’t call again because they’re lines are clogged, it’ll just slow the process," said White.

She added that O&R is setting up a web-based system with restore times.

"(Nyack Village hall) has a small generator here so we have a tiny bit of power to post those estimated restoration times on the website and on the door of village hall," said White. 

Ice Distribution

Orange & Rockland Utilities will distribute a limited supply of ice to aid those without power from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at Provident Bank Park in Pomona.

According to the most recent update,  as the utility company rebuilds many of its key systems. Service had been restored to approximately 15,000 customers as of 8 a.m. Wednesday.

O&R sent out a reminder that its crews are focusing primarily on rebuilding transmission circuits and substations before more localized repairs while also working to secure downed and damaged lines that can create dangerous conditions.

O&R currently has approximately 2,000 people at work, a mix of its own employees and contractors. 

Provident Bank Park is one of five locations where O&R will distribute ice Wednesday, the only one in Rockland County. The other one closest to the area is the Closter Firehouse at 100 Ruckman Road in Closter, N.J., where distribution will be from 1 to 3 p.m.