. (08/29/2011)(readMedia)-- The full extent of damage caused by Hurricane Irene is becoming more apparent as National Grid personnel thoroughly work through the company's service areas in Eastern and Central New York. More than 3,000 restoration and support personnel are working around the clock to restore electric service to the 71,000 homes and business still affected in the storm's wake, as of 7 p.m. today.
National Grid crews from the region and other parts of the company's New York territory are being supported by hundreds of contractor and utility crews from as far away as Iowa and Tennessee.
"The full extent of the storm's wrath becomes clearer by the minute as we continue our damage assessments through the region," said Ken Daly, president, National Grid New York. "The unprecedented combination of damaging winds and torrential rains through most of the day yesterday brought down hundreds of trees and power lines, and flooded a significant number of our facilities.
"While we are making progress and have restored service to thousands, we continue to be hampered in many areas by flooding concerns, closed roads and bridges, and trees and limbs that will need to be removed over an extended period of time."
The company is estimating that service was interrupted to as many as 156,000 customers in upstate New York. Crews have restored service to more than 84,000 homes and businesses thus far.
Under the company's priority system, repair crews typically first address problems with transmission lines and substations that restore critical customers such as hospitals and public safety facilities and serve large numbers of customers.
While those problems are being resolved, crews begin to work on substations and primary lines that serve many customers. Crews then target lines that serve local neighborhoods. Lines and transformers within neighborhoods and the wires that connect them to homes and businesses come next, starting with areas that involve the most customers.
Staying Safe During and After the Storm
Log on to www.nationalgridus.com for more information on how to stay safe during and after Irene.
National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.