Hank Gross

Republican New York Nan Hayworth is going to be a one term member of the House of Representatives. Democrat challenger Sean Patrick Maloney defeated her if the district that includes portions or all of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess and Orange counties.   Hudson Valley correspondent Hank Gross reports...

  With roughly 15,000 Orange County residents still without power, County Executive Edward Diana has called on the State Public Service Commission to review local utility companies’ performance in response to damage and outages left by the storm.

Poughkeepsie area college students, who were denied the ability to vote in the election by Republican Dutchess County Elections Commissioner Erik Haight, may do so after all.

Haight maintained they did not properly list their campus addresses on their voter registration forms. But, US District Court Judge Kenneth Karas ruled late Monday they may, in fact, vote on Tuesday.

State Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson want to sit down with top officials of the utilities that serve the region to discuss the preparedness of their companies on storm response.

“This is not a witch hunt,” said Gunther. “This is about making sure the communication between the utility companies, the public, and government officials during Hurricane Sandy is greatly improved for any future natural disaster.”

   There are four gas stations in the Village of Chester, which is situated along Route 17M, paralleling Route 17. Being in southern Orange County, people from New Jersey have been driving up, filling their vehicles and extra gas cans.

There were many as 50 or 60 vehicles lined up at stations at one time and have been running out of gas until new shipments arrive.

That prompted Mayor Philip Valastro to impose a $50 limit on each motorist’s purchase.

As the word spread Thursday of the difficulty that oil companies were having in delivering gasoline to service stations, panic set in from New Jersey to New York City and up into the Hudson Valley.

By late afternoon, vehicles were lined up for blocks in the region, waiting to buy the “liquid gold.” Compounding the problem was the continued major power outage with people buying generators in record numbers, adding to the demand at the pumps.

Many stations ran out of gas with people still waiting at the pumps.

  Sullivan County public safety and fire officials are concerned about the increase in carbon monoxide calls that have come in over the last two days.

The Westchester County Department of Health on Wednesday urged people with private wells that were flooded to either boil their water before consumption or to use bottled water as a precautionary measure since sewage and other harmful contaminants can be washed into private wells by storm waters. 

Steady progress was made Tuesday in repairing damage to Central Hudson’s electric system in the wake of severe winds delivered by Tropical Storm Sandy.

By 8 p.m., power was restored to more than 50,000, or nearly half of all impacted customers, and crews worked throughout the night.