Updated 06/19/2012 04:47 PM
Power out for third time in five days
More than 10,000 people were without power Tuesday morning for the third time in just five days. A power outage affecting parts of Syracuse, DeWitt and Salina occurred around 5 a.m. Power was restored within a few hours, but as our Katie Gibas reports, with a looming heat wave, residents are worried about the electricity powering fans and air conditioners going out again.
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ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- Thousands of people had to get ready for work in the dark Tuesday morning. Electricity went out to areas in Syracuse, Salina and DeWitt from 5 a.m. until about 7:30 a.m.
"I had a little Coleman lantern sitting on the toilet, trying to wash up and do your hair and your teeth and all that. No coffee and it was a kind of a mixed up morning," said Jody Lamitie, a Mattydale resident.
Residents say they're concerned because this is the third power outage since Friday.
"It's quite a concern. I'm not as young as I used to be and heat gets you a little bit and we've got a warm stretch ahead of us right now. Hopefully National Grid will get it figured out," said Lamitie.
And National Grid says they do have it figured out. The initial outage was caused by a piece of equipment that monitors voltage at the Teall Avenue Substation breaking Friday.
"We rolled in what's called a mobile substation. It's just a similar piece of equipmen,t but it really enables the community to maintain power," said Melanie Littlejohn, a National Grid CNY Regional Executive.
A wire failure on that mobile substation caused Tuesday's outage. The wire has been replaced and is fully operational. But repairs on the main substation are going to take a bit longer.
"It's a fairly substantial job. We have all of our effort and resources directed at resolving the issue. And we take really, very seriously, the maintenance of our system. And so we don't want anyone to be concerned or alarmed. We are certainly doing all that we possibly can to continue to operate safety and efficiently," said Littlejohn.
At this point, National Grid doesn't have a firm timeline on those repairs. Littlejohn says because these outages were a result of equipment failures, just like when something goes wrong with your car, they can't guarantee there won't be future outages, but at this point, they don't anticipate any.