Thousands of homes and businesses across the Northeast remain without electricity in the aftermath of a wild storm that moved through early this morning, taking down trees and power lines. Capital Region Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports
A National Weather Service flood watch continues through this afternoon and a high wind warning through this evening for the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. A high wind warning has been posted for much of New York, as well as the six-state New England region.
National Grid's Patrick Stella expects most of the Capital Region blackouts to be repaired by early after noon. Jim Salmon is manager of outreach and development for NYSEG - 9-thousand of its customers are without power. Salmon expects most customers will be back online late today - tomorrow the latest.
Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian says things are getting back to normal in the mid-Hudson Valley and crews are standing by to deal with additional outages that may pop up. Ulster County Executive Mike Hein has been monitoring the situation - he says there have been no reports of any significant damage to roads or water bodies that had previously been affected by storms Irene, Lee and Sandy.
Orange and Rockland utilities reports progress in restoring power.
Con Edison's Allen Drury says the storm caused a fair amount of damage to power lines in the 5 boroughs of New York City and Westchester County.
Connecticut was the hardest hit of nearby states, with utility companies there reporting more than 55,000 power outages at the storm's peak.
There are major delays reported at New York City’s airports: passengers are advised to check with their airlines before leaving home.
