Nearly 500 National Grid customers lost power in Schenectady on Wednesday due to a quick but powerful storm.
"Weather does unusual things," said resident Gary Hughes.
He is referring to the snapped utility poll and partially uprooted tree
at the corner of Bradley and Division Streets, just a few hundred feet from his home.
"Pretty quick thunderstorm, moved through pretty rapidly, the unusual part of it is all the wind came out of the east," said Hughes.
The damage occurred just before 3 p.m. The top of the utility pole was just dangling in the wires; the street light was still on, which meant all the wires,
loosely hanging among sidewalks and driveways, were live.
National Grid shut down the intersection. Trucks and crews lined up, ready to restore power.
Larry Nix was one of 495 customers to lose electricity.
"I think we are going to take off to my mother-in-laws house and stay there for a few hours and that way we can be in the air," said Nix.
Before crews could restore the electricity, they had to chop down the uprooted tree, which was leaning on the utility pole.
"We had heavy rain and heavy hail but I didn't expect this," said Roger Moquin.
It wasn't until 9:30 at night, nearly six hours later, that National Grid was finally able to hoist up and remove the top of the utility pole.
Jason Santiago had been home, in the dark, waiting patiently.
"Refrigerator not working, it's crazy, sitting there at first, then they start to do work again and they stop, yea, taking a long time," said Santiago.
As of 11pm 39 customers were still without power.
NEWS10 ABC
