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March 11, 2008

Pockets of Essex County without power persist

Remote sections of 4 Essex towns still waiting

By LOHR McKINSTRY

MORIAH -- Electricity was slowly coming back on in remote sections of Moriah, Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Westport Monday following an ice storm over the weekend.

Those four towns each still had 100 to 400 National Grid customers with no electricity.

Westport Supervisor Daniel Connell said he had five or six roads in his town that weren't expected to have power restored until today.

Power to most of Westport came back on at about 8 p.m. Sunday, he said.

"Westport is at the end of the National Grid line, so they work their way north to us. Some of our roads got hit hard. There were places in Westport you couldn't stand up because of the ice."

MEALS AT SHELTERS

A shelter was set up at the Westport Town Hall on Route 22 over the weekend.

A mass shelter was opened at noon Monday for the residents of Ticonderoga and surrounding communities still without power.

The shelter, located at the Ticonderoga Armory Community Center, will remain open until the need for sheltering decreases, officials from the American Red Cross Adirondack-Saratoga Chapter said.

Red Cross Executive Director Eileen Reardon said continued cold temperatures and loss of power warranted the opening of the shelter.

"Now that the power has remained out, residents are in need of additional shelter."

She said warming and feeding centers in Schroon Lake and Ticonderoga served more 70 individuals over the weekend. The warming shelter in Schroon Lake was officially closed Monday.

Most of the people wanted a hot meal or to get warm, Ticonderoga Supervisor Robert C. Dedrick said. He said only a few people came to the shelter in his town who needed a place to stay.

"They were given rooms at the Super 8 Motel. The Red Cross told us if you have less than maybe 20 people, it's better to put them up somewhere than to operate a shelter."

CREWS WORKING HARD

Sections of Moriah's Witherbee and Mineville hamlets were still without power Monday, and National Grid crews were working to get them back on.

Parts of south Ticonderoga were also without electricity, Dedrick said.

Ticonderoga Central School was closed Monday because of the outage.

In Mineville, tree-trimming crews have been removing limbs from lines, followed by National Grid repair crews who put the wires back up. About 20 power poles in Moriah were snapped off by the ice and wind storm that came through early Sunday morning.

National Grid spokesman Patrick Stella said 335 line and tree crews are working in the Northeast.

"The storms wrought havoc on trees and equipment, resulting in more than 100 broken poles, 300 sections of wires down and 1,000 separate locations where trees or tree limbs came down under the weight of heavy snow and ice combined with strong, gusty winds."

Villages and major hamlets have had power restored, he said, with work progressing to back roads.

"The crews have faced multiple challenges, including rugged terrain, extreme cold and wind and damaged equipment in very remote areas. In a few of the hardest-hit locations, crews are only able to gain access to damaged equipment on foot."

More than 30,000 National Grid customers had no service Sunday after the storm hit.

TUPPER LAKE OUTAGE

Ice and freezing rain shut down power to much of Tupper Lake Saturday, with power and cable lines down under branches laden with ice. The storm's severity caused officials to declare a state of emergency early Sunday, a situation they anticipated would last through 6 p.m. Monday, with emergency shelter available in the Knights of Columbus Hall.

The Tupper Lake Police Department said about 300 people remained without power Monday morning, a number reduced closer to 100 by the end of the day, as crews from Tupper Lake, Lake Placid and Massena worked to repair lines.

No accidents occurred due to power outages or the ice storm, police said, though the phones in the Village Offices and Police Station rang nonstop.

Tupper Lake Central School was closed Monday, but most downtown Main Street businesses remained open.

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