Strong winds cause power outages affecting homes and businesses across Monroe County

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Thousands were still in the dark Monday after Sunday’s powerful wind storm took down trees and power lines.

Some areas saw winds up to 70 miles per hour on Sunday and businesses and homeowners were still feeling the impact and were left in the dark on Monday.

RG&E crews said they’ve been working since yesterday and they have added additional crews to their restoration effort today.

“We came in at about 9 a.m. and the power was on and then about 30 minutes later, the power went off and we haven’t had power since,” Roc City Furniture Henrietta owner Daniel Stuart said.

Stuart said the ripple effect of the storm caused them to lose power and turn customers away.

“They are coming in and they want to do some shopping, but as you can see, it’s pretty dark in here and we’re telling people to come back,” Stuart said.

Stuart said this is not good for business and this is typically their busy time.

“We had a lot of snowmelt which made the ground very soft, which made it even harder for, you know, easier for the wind to take down some of these trees,” Julio Saenz a spokesperson for RG&E said.

Around 9 a.m. nearly 37,000 customers were impacted.

RG&E crews said their first priority and line of effort is making sure the community is safe and that down power lines and transmissions lines are taken care of and once that’s done they can restore the power.

“So we have about 800 folks out in the field today already working on this, and we’re making good progress,” Saenz said.

Saenz said there were several calls they got about downed trees, debris and live wires which make it for very complicated work and are urging patience from those who may be affected.

“Once the power comes on, we would, we will stay here until our trucks are back from deliveries and we got some trucks coming in that we have to unload and then probably after that we just go home,” Stuart said.

RG&E is coordinating with the county to set up dry ice and water distribution sites.

Those locations will be updated on their website. They will also have the latest up-to-date information on when power will be back on where you live.

Rochester residents without heat can go to a temporary emergency shelter at the David F. Gantt R-Center at 700 North St. starting at 8 p.m. RTS is providing free bus fair.