Trees did most of the damage to the power grid
DELMAR and COLONIE – Bethlehem continues to recover on Monday afternoon from the effects of an early Spring ice and snow storm that left heavy power outages in its wake since Saturday, March 23. National Grid says all Bethlehem residents should get power back by late tonight. As of press time, 2,000 households still lack power in Bethlehem, but only 800 are lacking power in Colonie.
At its peak, 13, 400 or 80% of Bethlehem’s National Grid customers were out of power over the weekend, said Bethlehem Town Supervisor David VanLuven. He said at one point National Grid reported 125 downed lines. “You could see branches and trees down everywhere,” said VanLuven. He knew of trees falling on five houses that are now uninhabitable until repairs are made.
“We have a lot of crews out there,” said National Grid spokesperson Patrick Stella. Stella said the half inch accumulation of ice, together with heavy snow that lashed onto trees was the culprit that caused trees to crack under the weight and knock out power lines.
Stella said National Grid had positioned additional crews because they knew the storm was coming, but it “overperformed” compared to the forecast. “There was more snow and ice than we thought there would be,” he said.
“Mother Nature gave us not a 1, 2, but a 1, 2, 3, 4 wallop – snow, then rain, then freezing rain, then snow again,” said Mary Rozak, Director of Communications for the Office of the County Executive. She said Albany County was hit particularly hard and in Albany County, Bethlehem, Gulderland and pockets around the City of Albany, hit the hardest. On Sunday at 5 p.m., Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy lifted the state of emergency he had declared the day before for the County due to dangerous weather conditions.
By all reports, it was “old” Delmar that took the biggest brunt of the storm’s fury. Stella said the trees caused the outage. He could not believe the amount of tree damage he saw driving through the area.
Van Luven said this is a by-product of having lots of trees in the neighborhood, but he rejected cutting down trees as a solution. “This was a freak storm in unusual circumstances and we need to recognize it as such,” VanLuven said.
Town Highway Superintendent Marc Dorsey, whose department was responsible for snow plowing and removing road debris, said the problem is “you can’t cut every tree down. You could lay the power lines underground, but this is an old town and it’s not feasible because it would cost a fortune to do that and even that would not be a total fix.”
The Town regularly prunes and trims trees on Town property, but VanLuven said most of the Town’s trees are owned by private landowners.
Stella said National Grid also engages in a regular cycle of tree pruning, but when trees are on private property, they cannot trim trees without the property owner’s permission and not uncommonly they say no.
Selkirk Fire Chief Tom Neri, whose fire department covers Route 144, said “there are tons of dead trees along the road just waiting to come down .” He said the State clears trees in the right of way, but the private property owners along the road don’t want to cut their trees down because it costs them money.”
Rozak said she knows of a situation where National Grid tried to take down a branch and a tree because it was potentially hazardous and the property owner refused. “This is not an effort to cut down trees, it’s an effort to prevent a potential problem, Rozak said.
With Bethlehem at the epicenter of the storm damage, VanLuven preferred to focus on the response to the disaster. “I am proud of the remarkable work” by the Town’s emergency responders, highway crews and other staff who all “worked together beautifully” and “keep working until the job gets done.” He said,“we are so lucky to have people willing to do this in our community.”
On Sunday, the Town opened a warming center at town hall. 50 people came in. VanLuven said most comers came to charge electronic devices rather than warm up. “They were desperate for outlets,” he said. On Sunday the Town’s senior services team checked in on vulnerable residents.
Over the weekend, the Town’s highway department worked around the clock for 2 ½ days, with 30 employees out on the road and about an additional 30 supporting them to plow roads and clear them of debris, including trees and tree limbs. Since Saturday, the highway department received nearly 40 calls to remove road blockages. Dorsey said the weight of the snow and ice laying on top of the lines snapped poles and lines. He said the problem was exacerbated because the Spring ground is soft, so trees uprooted more easily.
Firefighters and other local first responders also fought to keep up with storm related calls. Elsmere fire chief Marc Futia said his department received 50 calls in a day and a half, starting Saturday morning. Those calls included downed wires and carbon monoxide from a generator stationed too close to a house. Futia described roads blocked by trees, telephone poles snapped in half, and four telephone poles burning in front of his own home.
Some firefighters slept overnight at the firehouse while they continued to respond to calls. One Elsmere firefighter went home when his wife called to say a tree crashed through their home’s roof, but quickly returned to duty.
In Selkirk, Chief Neri said calls started coming in Saturday morning, first for a rain related car accident that took out two telephone poles on Route 144. The road was shut for almost 18 hours. “It went downhill from there,” he said. Trees were taking out telephone polls he said and wires were down everywhere. He recalled four places where tree limbs were on fire.
In the aftermath, firefighters continue to take numerous calls for flooding basements, Futia said. He said his firefighters are “pooped”, but hopes they get a good night’s sleep tonight at home.
