Strong winds kept Cayuga County emergency responders and New York State Electric and Gas crews busy Thursday, but the overall impact was minor compared with other parts of the state and Northeast region.
Barb Murdoch, a NYSEG spokeswoman, said the wind temporarily knocked out power to 168 residents in Cayuga and Union Springs and another 350 on West Lake Road in Auburn, but power was restored to those customers within two hours.
Both power outages were caused by falling tree limbs knocking down power lines.
As long as the county could avoid any serious power outages, Murdoch said, some local crews will go to western New York, where 18,000 customers have lost power as a result of the wind storm.
In that region, a wild mix of rain, snow, high winds and flooding knocked out power to thousands of utility customers and forced dozens of schools to cancel classes.
Ice jams caused flooding along some creeks and rivers in the Buffalo area late Wednesday, and more than 40,000 customers were without power because of high winds Thursday afternoon.
Clay Ellis, another spokesman for NYSEG and Rochester Gas and Electric, says about 29,000 of the outages were in a five-county area around Buffalo and along the Southern Tier, and some will remain out through Friday. Ellis says another 1,200 customers around Rochester were without power.
The wild weather followed two days of 50-degree weather in western New York that caused an extensive melt-off of the snowpack.
In Cayuga County, even with winds gusting up to 60 mph and melting snow and rain causing minor flooding in the southern parts of the county, property damage was not substantial, said Brian Dahl, the county's emergency management director.
A National Weather Service warning for high winds and watch flooding was in effect for Cayuga County through Thursday night.
The wind also impacted the New York City area on Thursday, tossing a signal pole onto train tracks, hurling garbage cans onto busy streets and killing a construction worker.
With wind gusting up to 55 mph, the weather also was causing havoc at the region's major airports. The Federal Aviation Administration reported delays of about 3 hours at New York's LaGuardia Airport and 3.5 hours at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
Even going out for lunch was a chore.
Pedestrians in midtown Manhattan braced themselves against poles and traffic lights while waiting to cross the street. With gusts kicking up gravel and sand at construction sites, walking down the sidewalk became perilous to some.
“I got more sand in my eyes than a beach and I almost got blown over backwards,” said electrician Michael Lazzaro, who ducked into a neighborhood bar on his way home from work.
On Long Island, high winds blew a crossing gate into a passing Long Island Rail Road train, sending four people to the hospital for injuries from shattered glass, the LIRR said.
Elsewhere on Long Island, a signal pole was blown onto the tracks, causing train and traffic delays. North of the city, Metro-North Railroad reported delays on its New Haven line between Grand Central Terminal and Stamford, Conn., because sheet metal blew onto the overhead wires that power the trains.
Wind was believed to be a contributing factor in the death Thursday of a 59-year-old construction worker. A concrete wall collapsed on him in Staten Island, city officials said.
The death was one of 15 incidents at city construction sites where debris blew off buildings, the Buildings Department said. The department told contractors this week to suspend crane and hoist operations if winds exceeded 35 mph.
Power outages affected nearly 17,000 customers in New Jersey, 4,100 on Long Island and 900 in Westchester County and New York City.
The National Weather Service measured wind gusts of 48 mph in Central Park on Thursday afternoon; 55 mph at Kennedy International Airport and 54 mph at LaGuardia.
Sustained winds were in the range of 30 mph to 40 mph, with potential gusts of up to 60 mph. The winds were expected to ease Thursday evening.
Near the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, powerful gusts of wind knocked over two coin-operated newspaper racks and two heavy metal trashcans at one intersection. Trash swirled down the street.
Willard Cudjoe, a construction worker who is 6-foot-6 and weighs 250 pounds, marveled at the wind strength while on a lunch break at a local deli.
Had he not braced himself against the sides of buildings as he walked down the sidewalk, “The wind would have taken me off my feet,” he said.
Both power outages were caused by falling tree limbs knocking down power lines.
As long as the county could avoid any serious power outages, Murdoch said, some local crews will go to western New York, where 18,000 customers have lost power as a result of the wind storm.
In that region, a wild mix of rain, snow, high winds and flooding knocked out power to thousands of utility customers and forced dozens of schools to cancel classes.
Ice jams caused flooding along some creeks and rivers in the Buffalo area late Wednesday, and more than 40,000 customers were without power because of high winds Thursday afternoon.
Clay Ellis, another spokesman for NYSEG and Rochester Gas and Electric, says about 29,000 of the outages were in a five-county area around Buffalo and along the Southern Tier, and some will remain out through Friday. Ellis says another 1,200 customers around Rochester were without power.
The wild weather followed two days of 50-degree weather in western New York that caused an extensive melt-off of the snowpack.
In Cayuga County, even with winds gusting up to 60 mph and melting snow and rain causing minor flooding in the southern parts of the county, property damage was not substantial, said Brian Dahl, the county's emergency management director.
A National Weather Service warning for high winds and watch flooding was in effect for Cayuga County through Thursday night.
The wind also impacted the New York City area on Thursday, tossing a signal pole onto train tracks, hurling garbage cans onto busy streets and killing a construction worker.
With wind gusting up to 55 mph, the weather also was causing havoc at the region's major airports. The Federal Aviation Administration reported delays of about 3 hours at New York's LaGuardia Airport and 3.5 hours at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
Even going out for lunch was a chore.
Pedestrians in midtown Manhattan braced themselves against poles and traffic lights while waiting to cross the street. With gusts kicking up gravel and sand at construction sites, walking down the sidewalk became perilous to some.
“I got more sand in my eyes than a beach and I almost got blown over backwards,” said electrician Michael Lazzaro, who ducked into a neighborhood bar on his way home from work.
On Long Island, high winds blew a crossing gate into a passing Long Island Rail Road train, sending four people to the hospital for injuries from shattered glass, the LIRR said.
Elsewhere on Long Island, a signal pole was blown onto the tracks, causing train and traffic delays. North of the city, Metro-North Railroad reported delays on its New Haven line between Grand Central Terminal and Stamford, Conn., because sheet metal blew onto the overhead wires that power the trains.
Wind was believed to be a contributing factor in the death Thursday of a 59-year-old construction worker. A concrete wall collapsed on him in Staten Island, city officials said.
The death was one of 15 incidents at city construction sites where debris blew off buildings, the Buildings Department said. The department told contractors this week to suspend crane and hoist operations if winds exceeded 35 mph.
Power outages affected nearly 17,000 customers in New Jersey, 4,100 on Long Island and 900 in Westchester County and New York City.
The National Weather Service measured wind gusts of 48 mph in Central Park on Thursday afternoon; 55 mph at Kennedy International Airport and 54 mph at LaGuardia.
Sustained winds were in the range of 30 mph to 40 mph, with potential gusts of up to 60 mph. The winds were expected to ease Thursday evening.
Near the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan, powerful gusts of wind knocked over two coin-operated newspaper racks and two heavy metal trashcans at one intersection. Trash swirled down the street.
Willard Cudjoe, a construction worker who is 6-foot-6 and weighs 250 pounds, marveled at the wind strength while on a lunch break at a local deli.
Had he not braced himself against the sides of buildings as he walked down the sidewalk, “The wind would have taken me off my feet,” he said.
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