In Gates, some still waiting for power to be restored after Saturday’s winds

GATES, N.Y. (WHEC) — The last few days have been brutal for many who got their power knocked out by windy weather over the weekend, and some are still waiting.

RG&E told News10NBC it has crews working around the clock and expect to have full power restored in our area by Tuesday. When lights went out RG&E said they deployed about 1,200 crews just in the Rochester area.

"This storm brought really intense winds, 70 miles per hour or greater, we don’t see that very often in Rochester so it caused a lot of damage,” said Corporate Communications Manager Sarah Warren.

RG&E crews were still out Monday night, specifically in Gates along Golden Oaks Way. Many homes in this area were in complete darkness. There were at least five bucket trucks with workers fixing lines. Warren said replacing poles on a street like this is one thing — it becomes a challenge when it’s in someone’s wooded backyard.

"That takes additional time to restore because we need to carry the poles into the back lots, we need to clear an area to work and that’s more time rather than replacing a pole on a roadside,” Warren added.

If you live in those wooded areas, that could be a reason why you’ve had to wait so long for juice. Part of that work requires “by hand” tasks.

"Especially if you have to hand dig the hole, which in those back lots you do because we can’t get equipment back there so our crews are facing a lot of challenges and they’re overcoming them,” Warren said.

Schools also experienced power outages, the principal of Greece Olympia says power is back and classes will resume as normal Tuesday.