National Grid Provides Update on Power Outages Amid Storm Damage

Tens of thousands of residents are without power this morning following a devastating storm that ripped through Central New York. The worst of it has hit Rome, Canastota and Ilion.

Jared Paventi is a representative with National Grid. Paventi joined 'First News with Keeler in the Morning' on WIBX Wednesday morning to provide an update on when they expect power and gas services to be restored. As of Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. over 20,000 customers were still without power in Oneida County. There are over 2,300 customers without power in Madison County and over 1,800 without power in Herkimer County. There is no question Rome was the hardest hit Tuesday afternoon.

Tens of Thousands Without Power

Paventi said that the images and video he has seen are truly heartbreaking. To sum it up Paventi said, "Currently in the Mohawk Valley National Grid has nearly 26,000 customers without power. Roughly 21,000 are in the general Rome area and that is our focus of concern and our priority currently to get power restored." Paventi says that for Oneida County residents and Herkimer County residents there is no timeline on the restoration of services. They are both currently classified as in the "Assessing Condition" phase.

Paventi says there are several assessment crews to determine the amount of damage and how best to correct the issue. Those crews will also determine what equipment is needed to make the proper repairs. Repairs are being made as quickly as possible when deemed safe and possible. These storms were not expected and Paventi says. "We didn't anticipate tornadoes springing up everywhere from Cortland to Sackets Harbor to Rome, NY yesterday."

There is an overwhelming amount of assistance coming from all over the Northern Hemisphere. Paventi says crews are coming to assist from Novia Scotia, New Brunswick, states like Mississippi and there is a total of 800 crews in the Central Region working on the assessment and cleanup.

Gas Outage Concerns

In addition to power outages, there is also a concern about gas outages. Due to severe damage to some of the structures in Rome, the odor of gas was abundant in several areas, so emergency crews had to rush out to shut down the gas service at those locations. There is an abundance of danger there, according to Paventi. He says,

We can't have a situation where a gas line is going to break in a building, so we want to turn those off. If there is a gas leak caused by structure damage and the power goes back on, that's enough of a spark where it can cause a catastrophic in that building.

The damage is horrific and the full extent is still not known. It is important to know that while the timeline is unknown, National Grid is doing everything possible to restore services to all customers as quick and safe as possible.

You can follow updates on outages on the National Grid Outage Map.