Thousands of New York and New Jersey residents spent Thanksgiving Day without power after a storm dumped snow on much of the state.
Dutchess and Ulster counties had the largest number of outages Thursday evening, with more than 19,000 utility customers without power in those two counties in the Hudson River Valley.
Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. brought in extra repair crews to restore service to the 45,000 homes and businesses that lost power because of the storm. The utility warned that some areas might not see power fully restored until the weekend.
"Our service territory was the hardest-hit area of the state, and heavy, wet snow that weighed down trees has caused extensive power outages," said Charles A. Freni, Central Hudson's senior vice president of customer services. "We sincerely apologize that many local families will be without electricity during the holiday but please know that we are working as safely and effectively as we can."
The storm knocked out power to 50,000 customers in Orange and Rockland counties. More than 45,000 saw the power come back on Thursday, but the Orange and Rockland Utilities said some households would be without power until Friday morning.
In northwestern New Jersey, nearly 7,350 homes and businesses were without electricity, according to Jersey Central Power & Light reports.
Other utilities throughout the two states reported scattered outages.
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At the height of the outages, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were powerless in the Empire and Garden states.
The storm brought a mix of precipitation, ranging from heavy wet flakes to sleet before tapering off or turning over to rain Wednesday night.
Pine Plains, in New York’s Dutchess County, and Montague, in new Jersey’s Sussex County, each had more than a foot of snow.
The weather caused hundreds of cancellations at the region’s three major airports and wreaked havoc on the roads, contributing to hundreds of crashes.
