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Press release:

 A western New York field force of nearly 1,200 workers made significant progress over the last 24 hours and has restored power to more than 88 percent of the 171,000 upstate New York homes and businesses impacted by Wednesday’s damaging wind storm. Crews have been focused on the time-consuming, labor-intensive work of removing downed trees and thousands of tree limbs, repairing substations, replacing hundreds of broken poles and damaged transformers, and replacing miles of feeder lines and circuits. 

While the storm affected many areas of upstate, the most severe damage and highest wind speeds – in excess of 70 mph – were recorded in western New York. About 130,000 National Grid customers in that region were impacted and, by this afternoon, more than 110,000 have been restored. Today, the company’s full contingent of crews remains focused on restoring power to approximately 19,000 customers still out, especially in the areas where the damage was most severe, including portions of Monroe, Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties. 

National Grid anticipates restoring power to 90 percent of upstate New York customers affected by late tonight. Restoration in a few isolated locations and for some individual customers in the hardest-hit areas likely will continue into late Saturday evening because of the severity of the damage. Specific local restoration times, updated every 15 minutes, are available on the Outage Central page of National Grid’s website. 

“Our crews have made significant progress last night and through today and we have received outstanding support from state, county and local first-responders and emergency coordinators,” said Melanie Littlejohn, National Grid’s New York vice president. “However there is challenging work ahead and our job is not done until we have connected every customer.” 

Littlejohn noted that the equipment damage, particularly in rural areas, is severe and progress will be slow and steady. “The final hours of our restoration process are always the most labor and time intensive,” she said. “The number of customers restored by each repair job typically is smaller because the remaining damage affects very small pockets of customers, sometimes even a single customer.” 

National Grid is offering customers dry ice and bottled water at the following locations through 5 p.m. today. 

Wrights Corners Fire Company 

4043 Lake Ave., Lockport, NY 

City of Batavia Fire Department 

18 Evans Street, Batavia, NY 

Village Fire Station 

80 Owens Rd., Brockport, NY 

The company will continue dry ice and bottled water distribution again tomorrow from noon until 4 p.m. at the Batavia and Brockport locations only. 

Company Advises Caution 

The company also reminds customers to stay safe as they continue to recover from the storm’s damage. “Given the storm’s impact, there may be unsafe conditions in the region,” Littlejohn said. “We’re asking customers to remain aware of potential safety hazards such as damaged trees, particularly broken limbs that haven’t yet fallen to the ground. We also ask that drivers use extreme caution as they approach work areas, to ensure the safety of utility and other storm-response personnel who have been in the field around the clock restoring service.” 

The company also urges the public to exercise safety around electricity wires and other equipment. Downed lines should be immediately reported to your local emergency response organization or by calling National Grid at 1-800-867-5222. 

Additionally, if you use a generator to supply power during an outage, be sure to only operate it outdoors. Regardless of ventilation, never operate a generator indoors. Before operating a generator, be sure to disconnect from National Grid’s system by shutting off the main breaker, located in the electric service panel. Failure to do this could endanger our crews and your neighbors. 

For detailed information on post-storm safety, visit the Outage Central section at www.nationalgridus.com. 

When a power outage occurs in a neighborhood, it may in fact affect thousands of customers. How does National Grid restore service? 

National Grid emergency crews follow a time-tested plan to begin restoring service as safely and quickly as conditions allow. Accurate damage surveys, resource assessments and restoration estimates are critical in the preliminary stages of any major weather event. National Grid crews perform damage surveys as soon as possible during and after the weather-related incidents following established safety guidelines. Credible and consistent communication with local public officials and the media is maintained throughout the duration of the restoration effort by in-person updates between National Grid personnel and state and local officials, regular media updates, and updates to Outage Central. 

As damage assessments are underway, our crews clear away hazards such as live, downed lines. The clean-up of storm-damaged trees and branches removed from our electric facilities remains the responsibility of the customer or property owner, whether private or municipal. 

Next come repairs to main transmission facilities, including towers, poles and high-tension wires that deliver power from generating plants. Recovery work at local 

substations is also a high priority, because power flows from transmission lines through substations on its way to you. 

Circuits and transformers in neighborhoods and the wires that connect them to your home come next – starting with areas that involve the most customers. While waiting for your power to return, please know that we’re doing everything we can to restore electric service as quickly as possible. 

Here with you, here for you 

National Grid offers several ways to stay informed and safe – before, during and after a storm: 

 For real-time power outage information, online outage reporting, and in-depth storm safety information, visit the Outage Central section of our website, www.nationalgridus.com. Customers who create an online profile on our website can also sign up for email alerts. 

 To receive text message alerts and updates from National Grid, text the word STORM to NGRID (64743). 

 Online and text alert services can be started and stopped at the customer’s request. 

 Other ways to stay in touch: 

- Visit our website: www.nationalgridus.com 

- Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nationalgridus 

- Friend us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/nationalgrid 

Click here for a video on how National Grid restores power after a major storm. 

City crews were on Morton Avenue this morning as part of their rounds through the city to clean up downed trees and tree limbs.

There is dry ice and water available at the fire hall on Evans Street.

The National Grid workers handing out the dry ice advise that you should bring a cooler with you. If you don't have a cooler, bring blankets to wrap the ice in. If you don't have a cooler, you need to be prepared to drive home with your windows open because of the CO2 the dry ice emits. When you get the block, you need good winter gloves to handle the ice.

The crew was also told they should expect to be back at the fire hall tomorrow, which sounds like a sign that National Grid expects a lot of people to still be without power through tonight.

There are still nearly 100 locations in Genesee County with reported power outages affecting thousands of National Grid customers, but several outages should be repaired by this afternoon, including much of Stafford and Bethany and the west side of the Town of Batavia.

National Grid reports that power has been restored to the Village of Le Roy, though a couple of small outages remain in the area of the village.

The major outages in the City of Batavia, including Morton and Central avenues, and State Street as of yet have not ETA for repair.

There are still 615 outages reported in National Grid's service area in WNY, leaving 26,790 customers without power. Immediately after Wednesday's windstorm, there were nearly 100,000 customers without power.

To help residents without power, National Grid is supplying bottled water by the case and dry ice at City Fire on Evans Street. Dry ice was just delivered to the station, twice the amount delivered yesterday, which was all scooped by within an hour.

The dry ice at city station is available now (as of 10:50 a.m.)

Batavia High School's performance of "Hairspray" has been canceled for tonight. A 7:30 p.m. show has been added for Sunday.

Top photo: submitted by a reader. Bottom two photos, I took on State Street while out trying to find a National Grid repair crew working in the city (I didn't find one.)

Both Batavia City Schools and Le Roy Central Schools have announced they will be closed Friday due to weather-related issues.

The Batavia VA, 222 Richmond Avenue, will open an emergency shelter for county residents for tonight starting at 5 p.m.

Dennis Schafer, with National Grid, carries a case of water for Carol Marriott, of Pembroke, to her car for her outside the City of Batavia Fire Hall this afternoon.

National Grid set up a station at the fire hall this afternoon to provide water and dry ice to residents. Schafer said the delivery of dry ice was late, but once it was there, they were out within an hour.

He said he expects a delivery of twice as much dry ice tomorrow. He hopes the dry ice is delivered by noon.

There's still plenty of water and National Grid will be at the station until 5 p.m.

For most of the county that is out of power, National Grid doesn't expect power to be restored before 10 p.m. tomorrow.

Press release:

In response to citywide tree damage, the City of Batavia Yard Waste Recycling Station on Law Street will open its normal spring operations beginning tomorrow, March 10, and remain open until further notice. The station’s hours of operation are Monday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. 

Please be aware, only green matter is accepted at the station, (i.e., grass clippings, leaves, branches and twigs). Items cannot be left in containers such as bags or boxes, and all containers used to transport yard waste must be removed – please do not leave them at the waste station. 

No construction debris, fill or other refuse/garbage will be accepted. 

In addition, the City is asking all residents to move storm-related limbs and branches to the parkway in front of their property, being careful not to block storm water drains. City crews from the Bureau of Maintenance will pick up this material throughout next week. 

Please call the Bureau of Maintenance at (585) 345-6400 with questions.

National Grid appears to making progress on restoring power to its customers in WNY, but there are still more than 100 outages in Genesee County affecting more than 10,000 customers.

All of Le Roy and most of Stafford and Bethany are reportedly without power and there are 39 separate outages in the City of Batavia.

There are now more than 800 outages reported for National Grid in WNY, but the total number of customers affected has dropped to 68,000.

Le Roy High School has rescheduled tonight's musical, a performance of "Bye Bye Birdie." A performance has been added for 1 p.m., Saturday. Tickets purchased for tonight's show can be used for any remaining show -- 7 p.m. tomorrow, 1 p.m. Saturday and also at 7 p.m. Saturday.

RWC Bohn's on Clinton Street Road in Batavia is offering a series of discounted entrees this evening for residents without power (the restaurant was without power last night). The meals are $9.99 each and include strip steak, fish fry, broiled haddock, chicken parm, penne pasta with a bolognese sauce and fettuccine Alfredo.

UPDATE: The John Ferrara fundraiser at the American Legion in Le Roy tonight has been postponed.

Here are a couple of more pictures from readers of storm damage:

From Bob Jarnot of a tree down in Stafford.

Lilya Kotmel, a seventh-grader, sent in another picture from yesterday, this one on North Street.

This is from Josh Gaylord. The pool his parents installed 30 years ago was destroyed.

This picture and the one below, sent in by Jen Reichart, of McCormick Farms, show damage at the dairy farm in Alexander.

From a reader in Oakfield.

Sent in by a reader, bleachers hung up on a fence at Pavilion HS.

This picture, and the two below from McKinley Avenue, were sent in by Tracy Cook.

From a reader in Byron.

From Lori Siedlecki on Madison Avenue.

Yesterday, we reported on the number of downed trees in Centennial Park and we mentioned coming across a couple cutting one tree into logs for firewood.

As we said, City Manager Jason Molino basically said, while not encouraged, the wood would eventually be taken to the yard waste station anyway where residents could claim it as firewood.

Police have just been dispatched to Centennial Park for a "suspicious condition." A person with a rusted black pickup truck is cutting wood.

There are still nearly 100 separate power outages affecting about 10,000 National Grid customers in Genesee County.

WBTA has a complete list of school closings for today.

UMMC just announced the following closures:

• Cardiac Rehabilitation, 215 Summit St., Batavia
• Genesee Orthopaedics Batavia, 33 Chandler Ave., Batavia
• Internal Medicine, 229 Summit St., Batavia
• Laboratory & Diagnostics Le Roy, 8745 Lake Street Road LeRoy
• Laboratory Pembroke, 860 Main Road, Corfu,
• Pain Care Center, 229 Summit St., Batavia
• Surgical Associates, 229 Summit St., Batavia
• Tountas Family Care, 3 Tountas Ave., LeRoy
• Urgent Care LeRoy, 8745 Lake Street Road, LeRoy
• Women’s Care Batavia (Prenatal visits will be seen at 127 North St.), 33 Chandler Ave., Batavia
• Elective surgeries have been canceled  

The travel advisories for Genesee County and the City of Batavia were lifted at 11 p.m.

There are several roads in the county that are closed:

• Fargo Road, between Sweetland and Route 5
• Route 5 between Keeny Road and Bater Road
• Transit Road between Bridge Road and North Byron Road
• Warboys Road between Merrill Road and Sautell Road
• Sanders Road between Bartoff Road and Route 5
• Gilbert Street southbound from Route 5
• Creek Road between Putnum Road and East Road
• State Street between Denio Street and MacArthur Park
• East Avenue at Naramore
• Dodgeson Road between Day Road and Beaver Road

The Sheriff's Office cautions roads may have debris. Be alert and careful. Give working crews plenty of space and slow down. A traffic light that is dark is treated as a four-way stop. The Sheriff's Office (dispatchers) have no information on estimated time of power restoration for those affected.

UPDATE 11:04 a.m.: Darien Town Hall is open and residents are invited to using it as a warming center.

Late this afternoon, I swung by Centennial Park and found several downed trees or trees that had lost big branches. I also found one couple busy cutting a tree into logs.  

I spoke with City Manager Jason Molino about it and he said the city generally prefers that people wait until the trees are hauled to the yard waste lot on Law Street, but on a day like today, the city wasn't going to do anything to stop people from cutting up the trees in the park.  He said the priority for city crews today was keeping roads clear of trees and debris.

Here are more pictures from our readers. These are ones that were sent in via text.

Also, a note, while a number of businesses had to close early, including some downtown restaurants, the restaurants around town that were open did a booming business tonight. Big Pauly's was packed, Settler's was full as was Ken's Charcoal Pits. John Spyropoulos, owner of Settler's, said he noticed that it seemed to be that way for all the restaurants that were able to stay open. A note about Big Pauly's, a reader sent me a message: Even though Stafford is normally out of Big Pauly's delivery area, they delivered a pizza to the reader's mom. "That was the only option for an old woman without power and I truly appreciate it," said John Michael.

These first two photos are from Lilya Kotmel, a seventh-grader. They are on State Street and North Street.

Emily, a student at Pavilion, took this picture while in study hall of a piece of metal roof lodged in the grass.

A reader sent in a picture of a tree down in his back yard on Ellicott Street Road.

Mark Fanara sent in this of a tree down River Street, Batavia.

A reader sent in this picture, and the two below, from the Trigon Park area of Le Roy.

From a reader, another view of the overturned truck on Route 98 overpass.

Damaged utility pole by Batavia HS on State Street, submitted by a reader.

This is from 7030 Lyman Road, Byron, Honqualac Haven Farm.

This last two photos are from Jim Elmore on Galloway Road, Batavia.

NOTE: If I get more pictures overnight, I'll try to post them in the morning. howard@thebatavian.com or (585) 260-6970.

The severity and the duration of today's windstorm has created numerous challenges for National Grid, according to a spokesman for the utility. 

Steve Brady said the amount of damage, with calls coming in all day, has been significant.

"Lots of wires down, broken poles, services out, all compounded by the difficulties of moving around and the safety hazards of trying to put buckets in the air in the high winds," Brady said.

There is currently no estimate for when power will be restored to all National Grid customers, but technicians are have been working all day and will continue to work to restore electricity to affected areas.

The utility is bringing in crews from other service areas that haven't been hit by wind to help with the restoration efforts.

By midmorning tomorrow, Brady said, the company should be able to provide a better estimate of when the work will be completed.

"The long duration has made it very hard to assess all the damage," Brady said. "It’s clear this will be a long event, well through tomorrow and likely beyond for many customers."

At one point today, National Grid reported more than 97,000 customers in WNY without power. Brady said as of a few minutes ago, the report was about 90,000, with Niagara, Genesee, Orleans and western Monroe counties being the hardest hit.

"Our divisional crews have been at it all day, and we will have at least some work being done through the night," Brady said.

PLEASE NOTE: Genesee County's emergency dispatchers are very busy and they DO NOT KNOW when power will be restored.

Superintendent Chris Dailey announced this evening that all schools in the Batavia City School District will be closed tomorrow as a result of today's windstorm.

These are photos I received from readers via email. I went through them in the order received and since I received so many, there were a few duplicates of the same scene shown in the same way, so I left those out. If you submitted a photo, sorry I didn't use yours. This is just from email. I'll start working on those that were texted to me next and post those in a separate post.

Top: From Tricia DiFilippo, a downed utility pole on State Street, smoldering.

A downed tree on Lewiston Road, Batavia, sent in by Rachel Wommack.

A building on Route 33 that lost its roof, sent in by Ashley Smith.

Reader submitted photo of trees down on Prospect Street.

Reader submitted photo of a tree down at the Blind School.

Reader submitted photo of a damaged tree on State Street.

The sign for the Crossroads House knocked down, photo submitted by Joseph Richmond.

This and the next two photos submitted by Sharon Herdtner of power lines down on State Street near the Batavia Nursing Home.

A reader submitted photo of a tree down on Harvester.

Submitted by Joseph Richmond, a tree down on the roof of the former dentist office on Washington Avenue, Batavia.

Photo submitted by Patrick Patmos of pine tree down on Osterhout Avenue, Batavia.

Truck on its side on the Route 98 bridge over the Thruway, submitted by a reader.

These are photos I took of some of the trees down in the city earlier today.

We've received several photos from readers. I'll post those as soon as I can. Keep them coming to howard@thebatavian.com or text (585) 260-6970.

I also have photos to post yet from the fire this morning, but I'm going to need to relocate to a place with electrical power (batteries running low) to get all those uploaded.

Top photo: Morton Avenue.

UPDATE 4:39 p.m.: There's a report of unknown type flames in area of 728 Judge Road, Alabama. Also, Julia Ferrini reports for us on Wyoming County Free Press that winds there have been clocked at 102 mph.

UPDATE 4:51 p.m.: It sounds like the Judge Road flames come from a garbage fire which the fire department will be putting out. There was also a car into a building at Leisure Timers; no injuries and Alabama fire is clearling that scene.

This photo and the one below, Central Avenue.

These two, in the Tully's restaurant parking lot.

The Genesee County Sheriff's Office has issued a travel advisory.  

Press release: