BUFFALO, NY — 24 hours after a wind storm took down trees and knocked out power lines, thousands of people were still without power across the region as of Thursday evening.
Frustrated NYSEG and RG&E customers reached out to 2 On Your Side, concerned that they couldn't get a straight answer from their utility company about when the power will be restored.
Julie Schemm contacted us from the Town of Boston, expressing frustration that her community in the Southtowns was left in the dark — literally — about when the power might come back on.
"There just doesn't seem to be any response," she said.
We took their questions and concerns to Avangrid, NYSEG AND RG&E's parent company.
"We cover such a massive amount of territory in the state that it's something that doesn't happen overnight," explained Avangrid spokesperson, Kevin Ortiz, about why it's taking more than 24 hours to restore power to so many customers. "And it's a process that does take some time. And again, our main goal is always restore power to our customers as quickly and safely as possible."
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was openly critical of NYSED's response times and accuracy of data, "There's a lot of people that are frustrated with NYSEG's outage map which shows that some areas are still out, when they've actually been repaired. Other areas...they have no idea when repairs are going to come."
Poloncarz says the company's failure to communicate and respond is hurting public works crews trying to clear downed trees, "Our department of public works cannot remove trees from a road in which there are power lines in the trees. It's as simple as that."
At noon, on Thursday, 2 On Your Side asked Avangrid how long it would take to restore power to all customers. Ortiz said the utility companies would communicate estimated times for restoration within one to two hours.
However, as of Thursday evening, customers tell Channel 2 they were still waiting for estimated restoration times.
The NYS Department of Public Service, Public Service Commission, tells us they are now actively investigating NYSEG, RG&E, and Avangrid.
In a 2017 investigation, the Commission found that during storms in 2017, the utility companies failed to follow their own emergency response plans, did not make timely damage assessments, neglected to properly secure downed wires and did a poor job informing consumers about restoration times. They could potentially face millions of dollars in fines. They're currently in settlement negotiations with the PSC.
The PSC tells Channel 2 that NYSEG expects to have 90% of its Buffalo customers restored by end of day Saturday, April 7.