Tens of thousands still without power in aftermath of Nor'easter

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The impact of Friday's nor'easter continues to be felt in parts of the Tri-State area as many people remained without power on Sunday.

Shelters opened their doors to people looking for a warm place to stay as crews across the region continued efforts to restore power.

The storm brought flooding and heavy winds that brought down trees.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the National Guard will be deployed Sunday throughout New York's Hudson Valley to help with storm recovery and power restoration.

In New York, Westchester and Putnam counties were especially hard-hit.

On Sunday, Con Edison had about 57,000 customers out of service, many in the White Plains area, and was estimating restoration times into late Tuesday night.

New York State Electric & Gas had about 78,000 customers out across the state, many of them in the Putnam County area.

On Long Island, PSEG Long Island had about 3,800 customers waiting for electricity and expected restoration to be done by the end of the day.

In New Jersey, Jersey Central Power & Light said it had restored service to more than 75,000 customers by noon Sunday, but over 130,000 still were without power.

The hardest-hit counties include Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex and Warren. JCP&L is offering free water and ice to customers remaining out of service.

Some residents are frustrated with the lack of communication from power companies.

"We call and we get no answer," said one woman.

Like many, Caroline Cooke has no power and no water.

"I have a sick husband, we have a generator but is a generator going to give me water?", she said..

In Somers, the Heritage Hills Activities Building became an emergency center Saturday night.

1,000 residents came through for outlets to charge their phones, a warm place to sleep and a hot meal provided by the Red Cross.

One utility called the nor'easter that struck New York State one of the most powerful storms to hit its customers in a half century.

Central Hudson made the claim Saturday as it informed customers it had already restored electricity to over half of the nearly 110,000 customers who lost power in Friday's storm. It said it hoped to have most power restored by Wednesday.

They were among over 200,000 customers across the state grappling with a power loss.

Con Edison said outages resulted when high winds and heavy snow damaged the overhead electrical-delivery system.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)