BINGHAMTON, NY (WSKG)—More than 40,000 homes in Broome County remain without power as of Tuesday evening. Record-breaking snowfall that began Monday night took down trees and power lines throughout the county, as well as much of the state.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said the storm affected 11 counties, from the Southern Tier to the North Country. She visited Broome County to discuss ongoing relief efforts on Tuesday.
The snow that fell was heavy and wet, Hochul said, and therefore caused more damage.
“Because of the weight of the snow, the tree limbs couldn't withstand the weight of that and countless tree limbs came down, literally bringing down the power lines with them,” Hochul explained.
Close to 350,000 homes throughout the state lost power during the storm, according to the governor. As of Tuesday evening, about 200,000 of them had their power restored.
“But here in the Southern Tier, there's still a lag time because of the severity of all the tree limbs coming down, hitting harder here than in other parts of the state,” Hochul said.
Crews are continuing to remove fallen trees and power lines from roads throughout Broome County. Officials there lifted a ban on all non-essential travel Tuesday afternoon. But County Executive Jason Garnar still urged residents to refrain from unnecessary movement.
“It's going to take at least 72 hours to get the power restored here in Broome County,” Garnar said Tuesday evening. “We've got a number of agencies, as you've seen, right from the governor all the way down to our parks department, working to make sure the power is restored as soon as possible.”
Garnar said more than 400 NYSEG workers have been deployed to the Binghamton area. He asked that residents be patient as they work to restore power.
In addition to the loss of electricity, hundreds of residents in the Village of Deposit remain without telephone service. Officials have asked residents to conserve and boil water if needed.
A curfew for the village is in place from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Garnar said the county is working with the state to establish a satellite communications operation there.
Municipal State of Emergency orders remain in effect in Binghamton, Endicott, Deposit and Franklin.
State officials reminded people to not use ovens to heat homes, and to keep generators outside, at least 10 feet from all main structures.
American Red Cross shelters for those affected by storm-related outages are available at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Binghamton and at the Deposit Fire Station.