O&R CREWS TO WORK ALL NIGHT TO FIGHT STORM DAMAGE

PEARL RIVER, NY Sept. 30, 2010 3:30 p.m. — O&R crews will be working through the night tonight to repair damage and restore electric service interruptions resulting from the storm that is lashing the region with strong winds and heavy rains.

Since early morning today, more than 5,300 O&R customers have had their electric service interrupted by the storm.

At this hour, about 2,700 O&R customers are temporarily without electric service. The largest outage now is in Highlands with 965 customers without service, followed by Warwick Town with 650 and Orangetown with 536.

Right now, by county, Orange has the largest number of customers currently affected by the storm with 1993, followed by Rockland with 572, Bergen with 188 and Sullivan with five.

The current weather forecast calls for the storm’s wind and rain to intensify through the evening hours with the severest weather occurring between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Forecasters predicted the weather to begin clearing about noon on Friday.

To help its customers weather the storm, O&R offers these tips:

• For safety’s sake, don’t touch or approach any downed wire. Assume it is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free 1-877-434-4100. Depending on the situation, you may also want to call your local police to divert traffic until an O&R crew arrives.

• Maintain a distance of at least 25 feet from downed wires and anything they are in contact with including puddles of water and fences. Supervise your children so that they are not in the vicinity and keep pets on a leash.

• If a fallen wire is draped over a car, do not approach the car and make rescue attempts. Remain a safe distance away, and try to keep the occupant of the vehicle calm. If possible, emergency personnel should handle the situation.

• Stock up on non-perishable food, bottled water, manual can opener, baby supplies and pet food. Set your refrigerator and freezer controls to their coldest settings. Fill the bathtub with water.

• Have emergency equipment within reach — portable radio, flashlights and spare batteries, first aid kit, cell phone and important medications. Update your personal list of emergency phone numbers. Keep O&R’s toll-free number 1-877-434-4100 near the phone to report power outages.

• If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it or that someone else will report it. To be sure the outage is reported, please call O&R toll-free at 1-877-434-4100 to let O&R know what happened. The more information you can provide, the more O&R can help you.

• Remember, if the base station of your cordless phone plugs into the wall, your phone will be unusable during a power outage.

• If a family member relies on electrically operated medical devices, secure a portable generator or make alternate arrangements for care. O&R does not provide customers with generators.

• Keep at least a half-tank of gas in your car. Consider having extra cash on-hand, in case ATM machines don’t work.

• Listen for storm alerts on the radio. In case of power outages, O&R will keep the stations updated on repair progress.

• Learn how to manually open and close any electrically powered garage door, security door or gate.

For more important tips, visit our Storm Information Center.