National Grid: It could be days to restore power to Rome area [Video]

Rome, N.Y. — Utility workers are mobilizing Wednesday to restore electric power to Rome and the surrounding area after severe storms, but there is no firm estimate on when service will be fully back online, a National Grid spokesperson said.

Restoring power could be a multi-day process, according to utility spokesperson Jared Paventi.

In addition to utility repair crews, contractors were driving in from as far away as Mississippi and Nova Scotia to aid the effort, he said.

As of 11:30 a.m., about 17,800 customers in Oneida County were without power, according to National Grid’s website. That included roughly 9,700 in the city of Rome, which has a population of 32,000.

The street-level power system was hit hard, Paventi said. Officials were still working to get a number of electric poles to be repaired or replaced.

There have also been outages along some high-voltage transmission lines, which are used to …