[UPDATE] Storms Knock Out Power to 2,600 O&R Customers in Rockland

UPDATE (5 A.M. THURSDAY) All but 15 customers in Pearl River and about a dozen in Sloatsburg have had their power restored in Rockland County.

UPDATE (6:30 P.M.) O&R electric crews have restored service to approximately 2,100 customer whose power was knocked out by a line of mid-summer thunderstorms, packing heavy rain, high wind gusts and frequent lighting strikes, that is roaring through the area at this hour. Approximately 2,300 of the total 4,400 O&R customers affected by the storm are still without power — about 1,900 in Rockland County.

A string of mid-summer thunderstorms -- packing heavy rain, high wind gusts and frequent lighting strikes -- roaring through the area has knocked out electric service Wednesday to about 4,000 Orange and Rockland Utilities electric customers.

O&R upgraded the Storm Watch it had posted this morning to a Storm Alert early this afternoon and mobilized and deployed all available company and contractor crews to repair storm damage and restore service. Site Safety, Damage Assessment and Customer Service functions were also among those mobilized.

The hardest hit area was Rockland County with about 2,600 customers followed by Bergen County with about 900 customers, Passaic with 227 and 170 in Orange. Pike County had 16 customers affected by the storm and Sussex 11.

The hardest hit area in Rockland: Suffern, with more than 1,100 customers without power.

O&R says crews will be working into the evening and through the night if necessary to restore service. Weather forecasters predict the possibility of more thunderstorms rumbling through the area between now and 9 p.m.   

O&R offers these storm coping tips:

• For safety’s sake, don’t touch or approach any downed wires. Assume downed wires are energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately at 1-877-434-4100. Depending on the situation, you may also want to call your local police to divert traffic until the crew arrives. 

• Maintain a distance of at least 50 feet from downed wires and anything they are in contact with including puddles of water and fences. Supervise your children so that they are not in the vicinity and keep pets on a leash.

• If a fallen wire is draped over a car, do not approach the car and make reckless rescue attempts. Remain a safe distance away, and try to keep the occupant of the vehicle calm. If possible, emergency personnel should handle the situation. 

• If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it or that someone else will report it. To be sure the outage is reported, please call us at 1-877-434-4100 to let us know what happened. The more information you can provide us, the more we can help you.   

For more storm coping tips, visit O&R’s Storm Center at O&R’s website www.oru.com. For outage information, view O&R’s Storm Center 3 Outage Map on the Storm Center site.