Power outages now affecting less than 8,000

The four utility companies serving the region are gradually getting power restored to thousands of homes and businesses who lost it when a series of thunderstorms passed through overnight and early this morning.

While the storms have mostly subsided during the day, the National Weather Service says there is still a flood watch in effect through Friday evening in Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Westchester counties, and until midnight in Dutchess and Ulster counties.

As of 4:30 p.m., there are still 7,278 customers without power. That is down from more than 12,000 Friday morning.

A large majority of the outages are still with customers of Orange and Rockland Utilities.

As of 4:30 p.m., the company is reporting 7,073 outages, including 5,981 in Orange County, 64 in Rockland County and 1,028 in Sullivan County.

Orange and Rockland is estimating all those outages will be restored by 11 p.m. Friday.

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New York State Electric and Gas is reporting only 38 customers still without power, 25 of them in Westchester County. It hopes to have those customers restored by 11 p.m.

Con Edison is reporting 89 of its customers in Westchester County without power, down from 283 earlier this afternoon. They hope to have power back on for all those customers by 8 p.m. Friday

And Central Hudson is reporting 78 customers without power in Ulster, Orange and Dutchess counties. They hope to have power restored for the remaining four customers in Ulster County by 6:30 p.m. Restoration times are still pending in Dutchess County, and are being re-evaluated in Orange County.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, Poughkeepsie Journal and The Journal News/lohud. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com or on Twitter @mikerandall845.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Power still out for less than 8,000