OSWEGO COUNTY, NY – The remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Central New York overnight, knocking out power and bringing down trees and limbs. At approximately 3 a.m., winds reportedly reached as speeds of 60 miles per hour as a cold front combined with what was left of the hurricane.
Less than two weeks into the new school year, the outages resulted in a long list of school closing and delays. (To see News10Now’s full list of closings and delays, click Here.)
While Oswego County’s emergency 911 center reports a large volume of calls overnight, it did not see major incidents, according to a 911 spokesperson.
“We had a lot of calls but there was really nothing major,†she said. “We had about 300 calls from midnight to 7 a.m.â€ÂÂ
She said the center brought in a couple of extra workers overnight to manage the call volume.
“We had several calls from every area of the county except the two cities,†she said. “They didn’t see much at all. Other than that, I can’t say that any one area was hit more than others. It was spread pretty evenly through the townships.â€ÂÂ
A damaged transformer threw some sparks. A couple of minor grass fires put themselves out. As of 7 a.m., the calls slowed down substantially, she said.
Patrick Stella, spokesperson for National Grid, said the company is doing field assessments now to survey the damage and mange the outages. He said it is difficult to determine at this point what time power will be restored to any one area.
“Power will be restored through the day today, tomorrow and even into Wednesday if necessary,†Stella said. “We are mobilizing crews throughout our service territory to help in Central New York, which is the hardest hit area in the state.â€ÂÂ
Stella said an estimated 100,000 customers are without power in Central New York.
According to National Grid’s outage tracker, Onondaga County continued to hold the largest number of customers reporting outages around the state with 38,406 customers in the dark as of 9:15 a.m. Oswego County followed with 18,520; and Oneida County with 14,052 customers. Oswego County customers most affected by power outages are in the townships of Volney, Schroeppel, Sandy Creek, Palermo, Mexico, Hastings and Constantia.
Stella pointed out that anyone who sees downed power lines should assume they are live and report the damage to National Grid immediately at 1-800-867-5222.
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