Central Hudson has restored service to three quarters of the 156,000 homes and businesses that initially lost power as a result of Saturday’s October snowstorm. As of Tuesday afternoon, about 40,000 Central Hudson homes and businesses remain without electricity.

“We estimate that there are nearly 1,500 repairs that remain to be made. Even though we have a field force of more than 500 personnel fully mobilized, it is simply going to take time and effort to correct the remaining problems, which for the most part impact small numbers of customers and are widely scattered,” said Central Hudson President James P. Laurito.

As of Tuesday afternoon, approximately 40,000 customers remain without electricity, concentrated in Dutchess (22,500), Orange (11,000), Putnam (2,400) and Ulster (3,000) counties.

“Neighborhood by neighborhood, customer by customer, we continue to make a great deal of progress, but the going is slow due to the nature of the damage created by this storm. There are still hundreds of widespread, small outages that are impacting individual neighborhoods, streets and homes,” Laurito said. “We’re committed to our goal to get the lights back on for virtually everyone by Wednesday night, and we ask for customers’ continued patience as we advance through communities making repairs in the most systematic and effective way possible.”

Laurito urged residents to take advantage of warming centers and shelters; to stay away from downed lines and trees that might be hiding energized wires; to never heat their home with an appliance that was not designed for heating purposes; and to disconnect sensitive appliances that could be damaged when power is restored.

Customers should call Central Hudson’s PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report downed lines and/or their power condition, and they are encouraged to use the automated reporting system. Customers with access to a computer may also report their power condition via the utility’s website, www.CentralHudson.com, by using the StormCentral function.

Information regarding service restoration estimates can be obtained by phone and on-line, and updates are posted on Facebook and Twitter. A mobile version of the utility’s website, including StormCentral, can be accessed by web-enabled cell phones and mobile devices at http://mobile.CentralHudson.com. Free Central Hudson mobile applications for Android-based and Apple devices are also available by logging onto www.CentralHudson.com/mobileapp.

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