ALBANY — Crews worked Monday to restore electricity to more than 70,000 customers in eastern New York still affected by a massive ice storm, even as winds and warming temperatures created new outages.
The storm that ravaged the Northeast late last week left close to a quarter-million customers without power on Friday through the mid-Hudson Valley. Hundreds of work crews dispatched from as far away as Michigan and Ohio had restored power to about two-thirds of the customers by Monday, but utilities say the sheer scale of the job means it could be Wednesday before almost all customers get their power back.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Gov. David Paterson.
Paterson, on a tour of the hard-hit Albany suburb of Niskayuna, said winds were creating new power outages even as crews were restoring service knocked out since Friday. Utility officials said progress was slowed by tree limbs snapping into their original positions as ice melted off under unseasonably warm skies.
By late afternoon, there were about 77,000 customers without power, most of them in the mid-Hudson Valley.
New York state police on Monday reported a fifth storm-related death in the Northeast — the third in New York. Robert Hendrickson, 57, was found dead Saturday in his garage in Jackson, a rural Washington County community north of Albany.
There was a generator and a portable space heater in the garage, and police called it an accidental death due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Despite the round-the-clock work by utility crews, downed limbs remained a common sight in the Albany area Monday and some roads remained blocked off. A portion of the Taconic State Parkway remained closed north of Route 199, near the border of Columbia and Dutchess counties. State police say the parkway is scheduled to reopen by Tuesday morning. The state parks department closed all or parts of three parks in the Albany area due to “dangerous conditions.”
Dozens of schools in hard-hit areas south of Albany were closed for a second day Monday.
Paterson was joined by Sen. Charles Schumer on a tour of the ice storm damage and the pair said they were seeking a federal emergency declaration for 16 New York counties hit by the storm.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Gov. David Paterson.
Paterson, on a tour of the hard-hit Albany suburb of Niskayuna, said winds were creating new power outages even as crews were restoring service knocked out since Friday. Utility officials said progress was slowed by tree limbs snapping into their original positions as ice melted off under unseasonably warm skies.
By late afternoon, there were about 77,000 customers without power, most of them in the mid-Hudson Valley.
New York state police on Monday reported a fifth storm-related death in the Northeast — the third in New York. Robert Hendrickson, 57, was found dead Saturday in his garage in Jackson, a rural Washington County community north of Albany.
There was a generator and a portable space heater in the garage, and police called it an accidental death due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Despite the round-the-clock work by utility crews, downed limbs remained a common sight in the Albany area Monday and some roads remained blocked off. A portion of the Taconic State Parkway remained closed north of Route 199, near the border of Columbia and Dutchess counties. State police say the parkway is scheduled to reopen by Tuesday morning. The state parks department closed all or parts of three parks in the Albany area due to “dangerous conditions.”
Dozens of schools in hard-hit areas south of Albany were closed for a second day Monday.
Paterson was joined by Sen. Charles Schumer on a tour of the ice storm damage and the pair said they were seeking a federal emergency declaration for 16 New York counties hit by the storm.
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