Repair crews stand ready near Brewster

MONTICELLO -- While NYSEG is continuing what is calls "a full-court press" in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, the company has "made solid progress in making repairs and restoring service."

Of the 267,000 total service interruptions caused by the destructive storm, 57 percent (approximately 153,000) have been restored.

Among those facilities without power was the Sullivan County Jail, which operated on generators while the storm interrupted service. That was restored early Wednesday afternoon.

“Because of the good work our people have done across NYSEG and RG&E’s combined 20,000-square-mile service area, we have been moving considerable additional resources to those areas where damage is most severe,” said Mark Lynch, president of NYSEG and RG&E. “We expect to continue to make good progress restoring service today in the RG&E service area and in completing a comprehensive damage assessment in NYSEG’s downstate service areas. That damage assessment will enable us to establish global estimated restoration times and put in place a detailed service restoration plan.”

Nearly 500 company line crews and contract line and tree crews, along with hundreds of support personnel, are working on the massive power restoration project, primarily in Putnam, Westchester, Sullivan, Dutchess and Monroe counties.

Sullivan County Manager David Fanslau, though, emailed the company's community relations spokesman, James Salmon, telling him him he is "very disappointed" in NYSEG's response in the county.

" Sullivan County Public Works crews were prepared to continue to work to open more rods, but it was reported to me that NYSEG decided to end work for the day," Fanslau wrote. Salmon responded that "our crews work 17 hours on, 7 off. Maybe that crew had worked straight through."