ROCHESTER, N.Y. — If you’re a National Grid customer in our region, there’s a chance you will be without power all day Saturday. The utility says that as it was making upgrades to part of its electric system in the area it found a “critical infrastructure” issue that needs to be fixed right away. The repairs require replacement of two aging structures that support a transmission line. 

Roughly 7,300 residential and business customers in Avon, Caledonia, Lima and Livonia in Livingston County; Bloomfield and West Bloomfield in Ontario County; and Henrietta, Honeoye Falls, Mendon and Rush in Monroe County will be impacted by the outage, which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. and end around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 6.

National Grid says the work it needs to do is urgent to avoid the chance of a bigger, more extended issue at a less ideal time, like during a winter storm. 

Allen Walck lives in Avon and will be impacted by the outage. “It was like, okay … why has this issue been allowed to deteriorate to this point that it becomes so necessary to shut off power for an entire day?” he wonders.  

The utility says this particular problem requires the skills of many line and construction workers and it was decided that a planned weekend outage impacts fewer school districts, customers and businesses compared to scheduling it during a weekday.  While the utility says it understands that repair work this time of year is difficult for many, the urgency to make the repairs takes precedent.  

“I get it that this is a problem, and it needs addressing and I also get that we are hearty Rochesterians — I mean we’re used to stuff — but the timing is tough,” says Walck. “in Hispanic communities the 6th of January is Epiphany and it’s the day of the Three Kings so there are a lot of celebrations … for Orthodox Christians, it is Orthodox Christmas Eve because their Christmas Day is the 7th of January.”

Many churches in the area have already cancelled services for Saturday. Some grocery stores are reducing hours as well. The Honeoye Falls Marketplace is warning customers with signs on the door that it’ll only be open from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday because of the outage with very limited perishable department availability. 

And, many of those impacted won’t just be without power. “There’s a lot of people that are on well water; wells are going to be off, so there’s no water in addition to power,” Walck explains.   

National Grid offers the following advice for those with wells:  Customers with wells should use the upcoming week to store potable water for bathing, drinking and cooking. In addition, consider storing water for other uses, such as flushing toilets. A toilet will flush without the electric pump functioning: After flushing the toilet with its current inventory of water in the bowl, pour around one gallon of water into the toilet tank – not the bowl – before flushing again.

With the high temperatures only forecasted to be in the low 30s a number of warming centers have been set up for Saturday: 

Livingston County
East Avon Fire Department, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 
1615 West Henrietta Road 
Avon, NY 14414 
(585) 226-8207 

Avon Fire Department, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 
74 Genesee St. 
Avon, NY 14414
(585) 226-8118 

Lima Ambulance Base, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
7024 W. Main St.
Lima, NY 14485
(585) 624-2221

J.W. Jones Hall, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
366 Leicester Road 
Caledonia, NY 14423 
(585) 538-4626


Monroe County
Mendon Fire Department Community Room, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
101 Mendon Ionia Road
Mendon, NY 
(585) 624-6061

Rush Fire Department Building, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
1971 Rush Mendon Road
Rush, NY 14543
(585) 533-2058

Honeoye Falls Ambulance Base, open 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
210 East St.
Honeoye Falls, NY 14472
(585) 624-2200