Wind Storm Leaves Thousands Without Power In North County
Trending
More than 5,000 National Grid customers in Chautauqua County remained without power midday Wednesday after strong winds whipped through the region.
Most of the outages were seen in the north part of the county, specifically the towns of Portland and Pomfret as well as Dunkirk and Fredonia. By 1 p.m. Wednesday, more than 600 customers were still without power in Frewsburg -- by far the most in the south county.
In addition to Chautauqua County, more than 5,100 customers were without power at one point in neighboring Cattaraugus County.
National Grid distributed dry ice and bottled water at "targeted locations hit hardest by the storm." One such location was at the Dunkirk Fire Training Center. The utility provider said it deployed more than 3,500 line, service, tree, damage assessment and public safety workers across upstate New York to assess and repair damage to the electric system caused by the wind storm.
"They'll work around the clock until the last customers are restored," National Grid said. "More than 104,000 of 174,000 impacted customers in central and Western New York have had service restored after a wintry mix of rain and snow, and winds exceeding 70 mph impacted the regions. The weather caused downed wires, trees, tree limbs, pole damage and other hazards."
A wind advisory remained in place until Wednesday evening.
However, windy conditions may return to Western New York. In a message posted to social media, the National Weather Service said, "As the region cleans up after the recent significant wind storm, another storm system will pass near the area this weekend, likely producing another round of strong winds Friday night through Saturday."