National Grid ready to respond to power outages

National Grid officials says is prepared to respond to power outages that could be caused by Winter Storm Nemo.

The storm, which is considered " Amajor and potentially historic winter storm,” is bring expected to bring heavy snow, localized flooding, and damaging winds to Long Island.

The worst weather is expected to hit Long Island in full force Friday night and continue well into Saturday.

While the storm has the potential to cause electrical outages for over 100,000 customers across Long Island during the course of the weather event, it is expected that most customer outages will be restored within 24 hours of when they are reported, according to National Grid.

National Grid has secured commitments for nearly 500 off-island linemen and tree trimmers to supplement their 400 in-house and on-island contractor linemen and 150 on-Island tree crews. Most of these off-Island resources are already on site and ready to restore power. Additionally, we have activated our Long Island and DownstateNY restoration organization, which when combined with the linemen and tree trimming crews results in over 5,000 personnel committed to the restoration effort.

Efforts are also continuing to ensure on-going communication and coordination with LIPA’s customers, municipalities, elected officials and local, state, and city emergency response organizations.

“We are closely coordinating our resources with local municipalities to clear downed wires to assist with tree and debris removal activities and have been conducting daily calls with elected officials and local municipality leaders to convey information and establish open lines of communication”, said John Bruckner, National Grid president of the Long Island region. “As the storm progresses, we will continue to monitor and report the storm's progress on an around-the-clock basis.”