Storm Watch: O&R Preparing Crews for Potential Thunderstorms Tomorrow
Orange & Rockland Utilities (O&R) is preparing to mobilize its emergency response workforce ahead of the thunderstorms forecasted to pass through the region throughout Wednesday afternoon and evening.
These potential thunderstorms could pose a significant threat to electric service due to high winds, lightning, or downed trees and tree limbs – all of which could interfere with the safe, reliable delivery of electric service.
O&R company and contractor overhead line crews tree removal experts, customer service operators, and the rest of the members of the O&R emergency response team will be prepared to respond to emergencies throughout the duration of the storms.
For the latest information about power outages, please view the Outage Map. For a brief video that provides a step-by-step guide to the Outage Map’s basic operation:
O&R Warns
For safety’s sake, O&R warns the public not to touch or approach any downed wire. Assume the wire is energized and dangerous. Call O&R immediately toll-free 1-877-434-4100. Depending on the situation, you may also consider calling your local police to divert traffic from the downed wire’s location until an O&R crew arrives.
How to Report an Outage
If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it. You can report it and check to see when your lights will be back on through:
- Report an Electric Service Problem | Orange & Rockland (oru.com) from any computer or web-based mobile device.
- O&R mobile app from your iPhone, iPad or Android device — download via Apple Store or Google Play.
- Text messaging by texting “OUT” to 69678 (myORU) or
- Call 1-877-434-4100.
Restoring Service
Once the weather clears enough to safely assess damage and begin electric service restoration, O&R crews will give priority to clearing downed wires blocking roads and making repairs to critical and emergency facilities (police and fire stations, and hospitals, for example) and to those locations where the repair will provide power to the largest number of customers as quickly as possible. Then, crews will restore smaller outages and individual customers’ outages.
