Syracuse, N.Y. – Nearly 6,000 customers across Central New York remain without power on the second day of extreme heat and humidity hitting the region.
As of 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, 5,366 customers remained without power in Oneida County, while 517 customers in Madison County had no electricity, according to National Grid.
At one point Sunday, more than 60,000 were without power across the region.
Power is expected to be returned to most customers by 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, however some customers in more isolated areas may not be reached until Wednesday, according to National Grid spokesman Jared Paventi.
“We’re making progress incrementally,” he said.
The utility company currently has over 2,000 staff working to fix the outages, according to Paventi.
As thousands of customers await power restoration, much of Upstate New York remains under either an extreme heat warning or a heat advisory through Wednesday.
A potentially record-breaking combination of high temperatures and humidity has hit the area. Today, temperatures are expected to reach 95 degrees and feel like its 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The region was also slammed by strong storms Sunday that produced a tornado, strong winds and heavy rains that led to the death of three people in an Oneida County hamlet after winds blew trees onto two homes.
Paventi said the damage dealt by the storm is what is driving the long restoration times.
The state Health Department has compiled a list of cooling centers. Madison County officials also have created a list of cooling centers.
Staff writer Vince Gasparini covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach him at vgasparini@syracuse.com.