Where to get bottled water, dry ice while waiting for power restoration in mid-Hudson

The three utility companies serving the region are making slow but steady progress in restoring power after a severe thunderstorm Wednesday night left thousands of homes and businesses in the dark.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, 18,519 customers were still waiting for power to be restored. That number is down from 22,535 at noon.

Central Hudson reported 15,665 homes and businesses without power.

Ryan Hawthorne, Central Hudson's vice president of electric engineering and operations, estimated in a statement issued Thursday morning that power restoration likely would be a multi-day operation, with some customers not having power restored until Saturday. That was due to the remaining outages being at nearly 400 different locations, he said.

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Where to get dry ice, bottled water during outage

Central Hudson announced dry ice and bottled water would be distributed for customers beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Home Depot at the Dutchess Mall on Route 9 in Fishkill; the Home Depot at 3470 North Road in Poughkeepsie, near Marist College; and the Dan Leghorn Firehouse, 426 South Plank Road in Newburgh.

Orange and Rockland said dry ice will be distributed for its customers at Warwick Town Hall, 32 Kings Highway, beginning at 7 p.m.

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Orange and Rockland Utilities still has 2,336 customers in Orange County without power, along with two in Sullivan County.

The company estimated earlier today that 90% of all customers without power would see that power restored by 11 p.m. Thursday, and most others should have power restored by the same time Friday night.

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New York State Electric and Gas still had 516 customers without power Thursday afternoon, all but three of them in Dutchess County. The company estimated those outages in Dutchess County would be restored by 6 p.m.

By county, there were 9,708 customers in Orange County, 5,220 in Dutchess County, 3,587 in Ulster County and four in Sullivan County still waiting for their power to be restored.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com.