Albany and Schenectady County outages have dropped since this morning, while Saratoga County is back to nearly 8,000 as of 2:30 p.m..
National Grid was reporting more than 14,000 outages at noon in Saratoga County, up from 7,000 around 11:00 a.m. Saratoga leads the state in outages, as it has most of the morning.
At 2:30, Albany County has 819 customers without power, while Schenctady has 287 and Saratoga has 7,917.
As of 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 24, more than 10,000 National Grib customers went down. A half-hour before that the number was close to 13,000, but as crews made repairs power was resoted to a number of homes.
Noon numbers showed that Albany County faced 1,617 outages compared to 1,725 an hour earlier, and Schenctady dropped from 771 to 556. Saratoga jumped in the hour from 11:00 a.m. to noon to 14,626 from 7,940.
Albany has 135,861 customers, to Saratoga’s 89,503 and Schenectady’s 69,170.
National Grid is offering some recommendations for safety precautions.
For those with outages: disconnect sensitive appliances, such as computers, televisions and microwaves, to avoid potential power surge damage when electricity is restored. Keep refrigerator and freezer doors shutfood will stay six to nine hours in a refrigerator without spoiling. Frozen foods will keep about 24 hours. If your home has flooding, check with an electrician before turning on anything. Burn only wood or newspapers in your fireplace or woodstove,` according to information from National Grid’s Web site.
If using a portable space heater, follow these measures: `Some types of kerosene and propane portable space heaters get hot enough to ignite nearby draperies, carpet, paper, clothing or furniture. It’s important to periodically check nearby objects to see if they feel hot. It’s also important to choose a model that has an Underwriters Laboratories label, which means it has passed certain safety tests. If you must use a portable space heater, check to make sure it has a safety information label and an automatic shutoff device that turns the heater off if it tips over or becomes too hot,` the Web site states.
According to information from National Grid, crews are restoring power as quickly as possible, and under its `priority system` transmission lines and substations are first on the list. `Critical customers` such as hospitals and public safety facilities are also a priority.
`Crews then target secondary lines that serve local neighborhoods. Lines and transformers within neighborhoods and the wires that connect them to homes and businesses come next`starting with areas that involve the most customers,` according to National Grid.
The Weather Channel Web site, weather.com is reporting another storm is forming expected to hit the northeast on Thursday.
`Snow accumulations from the second storm could run 6 to 16 inches from central New York southeastward through eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and eastern Maryland. Accumulations rapidly drop off through central Pennsylvania, central Maryland, and northern Virginia with only a few inches possible there,` according to information from the Web site. `Rainfall east of the rain/snow line should be in the 1 to 3 inch range with flooding possible.`
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