After wind gusts as high as 75 mph on Monday, thousands are still waking up without electricity on Tuesday. National Grid customers remain the most effected, with over 7,500 customers in Western New York experiencing an outage. For NYSEG, they've been able to restore power to most people hit hard yesterday, with just around 600 customers still without power as of 9 a.m., Tuesday.
To assist customers and prevent spoilage of medications and food, National Grid has set up dry ice pick up locations throughout the region. Those include Buffalo Engine 36 Firehouse on Hertel Ave., Niagara Falls Fire Station #8 on Hyde Park Blvd. and City of Batavia Fire Department on Evans St. The hours of distribution Tuesday are 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Customers are asked to bring a cooler or paper grocery bags to transport dry ice. They'll also receive information about handling it safely.
"We choose locations that are somewhat central to the region, but also easy to access and away from where we might be doing a lot of repair work,” said National Grid spokesperson David Bertola, who added that distribution centers would be made available again Wednesday if necessary.
National Grid has utilized an estimated 3,100 line workers, tree workers and public safety specialists, some from Quebec and Ontario, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland and Connecticut.
"We made sure that we have enough resources and people, because this storm was looking like it was going to be severe, and it's certainly delivering," Bertola said.
If power remains out for 72 consecutive hours, under New York state law, residents and small business owners can make a claim to their utility company for reimbursement. The law covers up to $540 in food spoilage if verifiable proof of loss is provided, and the actual value of medication is reimbursed. Customers would have 14 days to make a claim, if their "widespread" outage hits the 72-hour mark.
(Update 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025)
Power Restorations
National Grid has restored thousands of customers with power through the morning and early afternoon hours. Customers still without power number 4,200 in Western New York, down from more than 7,500 this morning. NYSEG has just 175 customers awaiting service restoration.
A winter storm warning from the National Weather Service remains in effect through Friday for Wyoming, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Southern Erie Counties.
To check outages and restoration times for National Grid, click here.
For NYSEG customers, click here.