High winds brought down trees and power lines on Sunday, leaving thousands without electricity on a very mild day.
The temperature hit 73 on Sunday afternoon, which WXXI meteorologist Josh Nichols said broke a 128-year record. Nichols said there was also a 72 mph wind gust, the 7th highest wind gust in Rochester history.
And those winds left thousands without power on Sunday afternoon. As of 4pm, Rochester Gas & Electric was reporting more than 21,000 customers without power in Monroe County, and there was about 4,000 RG&E and NYSEG customers without power in Wayne County.
Early Monday morning, the number of RG&E outages was down to about 4,100 customers in Monroe County. The utility said that more than than 260 field personnel are responding to the windstorm damage with additional crews on the way. Officials did say that due to the amount of damage the company estimates that some outages in the hardest hit areas may not be restored until Tuesday.
National Grid reported about 4,000 customers without power in Monroe County on Sunday afternoon, and that was down to less than 700 by early Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon, about 7,000 customers were without power in Genesee and Orleans counties. That was down to less than 1,000 early on Monday morning, mostly in Orleans County.
Julio Saenz, a spokesperson for RG&E said that during this time of year, when the ground is often saturated, it makes it even more common for trees to fall during windstorms.
Monroe County Executive Adam Bello issued a travel advisory, due to all the downed trees and power lines, and with a number of traffic lights out, he reminded drivers to treat intersections with traffic lights that were dark as a four-way stop. He said the advisory would be lifted at 5:00 a.m. on Monday, but commuters should still be careful in the morning due to the possibility there will still be traffic lights out in some areas and some roads could still be impacted by debris and downed wires and trees.
Monday’s forecast calls for rain and a high of 41.
