Ice storm hits southern Essex County

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The top of a power pole lays alongside County Route 7 in Mineville Sunday morning. The pole was one of many sheered off by the ice storm that swept through southern Essex County after midnight. (Staff Photo/Lohr McKinstry)

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March 9, 2008

By LOHR McKINSTRY The Press Republican Sun Mar 09, 2008, 08:53 PM EDT

MORIAH — Even with dozens of repair crews working today, utility and emergency officials said it might be Tuesday before power is fully restored in southern Essex County.

An ice storm swept through parts of Moriah, Crown Point, Schroon and Ticonderoga just after midnight today, bringing trees and limbs down on wires and sheering off tops of power poles.

Around 4 a.m., a main transmission line came down and National Grid customers from Westport to Ticonderoga lost power.

“Many roads are closed,” said Essex County Emergency Services Director Raymond Thatcher.

“Trees are down, lines are down. National Grid is working on the high (voltage) lines, they’re working on the areas that were hardest hit.”

A state of emergency was declared in Essex County and the towns of Moriah, Crown Point and Ticonderoga. In Franklin County, the Village of Tupper Lake also declared a state of emergency.

“We are advising people not to drive in those areas,” Thatcher said.

National Grid said it had more than 7,800 customers without power in Essex County today, the hardest hit portion of its coverage area.

“We’ve got a lot of customers back today but some of these outlying areas — it’s tough to get to the lines,” said Tom Corbett, a spokesperson for the utility company. Power was restored to Port Henry and some other places just before 4 p.m., but Thatcher said it will be “Tuesday or later before all customers are back on.”

Corbett said there were more than 200 crews — many private contractors — working statewide to make power restorations today.

“It’s a 24/7 operation right now,” he said. “We’ve got crews out there all night.”

Corbett said the “lion’s share” of those crews were in Essex County.

“We’ve got guys driving from Buffalo to Ticonderoga,” he said.

New York State Electric & Gas — which serves some areas of northern Essex County — was also reporting outages in the North Country, with around 5,000 in Clinton, Franklin, Essex and Hamilton counties.

“There is mutual aid on the way from other areas of the state,” Regional Operations Manager Mark Leta said this afternoon.

He was also anticipating most repairs to be completed by Tuesday, but said wind has been hampering the efforts.

In Moriah, Dalton Hill Road, Silver Lake Road and Fairy Lake Road were all closed today because of branches and lines falling.

It may be days before some back roads are cleared, County Emergency Services Deputy Director Donald Jaquish said.

“There was a lot of devastation. This is like the Ice Storm (of 1998) all over again.”

The Ice Storm 10 years ago affected a much larger area, Thatcher said, but the damage he’s seen in Moriah’s Mineville and Witherbee hamlets and some remote sections of Crown Point and south Ticonderoga resembles what he saw then.

Shelters were set up today at the Moriah and Mineville-Witherbee fire stations, along with the Ticonderoga Community Armory and Westport Town Hall, and Thatcher said they would be staffed by American Red Cross personnel.

“Our shelter here is open,” said Moriah Fire Chief Ralph Jaquish. “We have food; we’re ready.”

Most gas stations in the affected area couldn’t sell gas without power, but long lines formed at Mineville Oil and Port Henry Service Center, both of which had generators to keep pumping.

Thatcher said he didn’t know if schools would be able to open Monday because even with power restored buses might not be able to navigate some secondary roads.

“Some places had one inch of ice. Some trees are totally flat. There is a lot of infrastructure damage.”

He said 20 residents of a Witherbee apartment building were taken to Elizabethtown Community Hospital and Moses-Ludington Hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thatcher said he didn’t have details on what happened to expose them to the fumes.

National Grid used its helicopter to check power lines for damage.

“They had to survey each circuit before the main transmission lines could be energized,” said Thatcher.

There were also some issues in Franklin County, where there were some power outages on the outskirts of Tupper Lake. But most parts of the county still had power today.

Clinton County also came out of the storm relatively unscathed, said Emergency Services Director Eric Day.

“I think we’re in better shape than our neighbors to the south,” he said, but added that blowing winds could take down some ice-covered wires.

— Ryan Hutchins contributed to this report.