Staff Writer

The weather continued to interrupt power for thousands of electric customers across the region Monday, power company officials said.

More than 4,200 New York State Electric & Gas Corp. customers were without power as of 4:30 p.m. Monday, according to spokeswoman Kathy King. The areas hit hardest were Chenango and Otsego counties, she said, and the company will be working to restore power through Wednesday.

At one point the Delaware County Electric Co-op had about 2,000 customers without power, according to assistant manager Wayne Marshfield. As of late Monday afternoon, half were still without electricity, but officials said they hoped to have power restored by midnight.

Most of the affected customers were in the Davenport and Harpersfield areas, Marshfield said. The outages were caused by trees falling on power lines.

Jean Lee of Harpersfield lost power for three hours on Sunday. "Like everybody else, I have kerosene lamps and build a fire in the fireplace and that's about it," she said.

Many schools opted to cancel or delay classes.

Delaware County reported 3 inches of snow Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service in Binghamton, and Otsego County received 3 to 4 inches. That, combined with ice in the region in the past of couple days, contributed to the problem.

"When the trees get loaded up with ice and wet snow, they catch the wind better and they're also more loaded down," said meteorologist Dan Padavona.

King said some NYSEG customers had been affected for more than 24 hours and were looking at 48 hours without power.

The Red Cross set up warming centers for those without power at the Unatego Junior/ Senior High School and at its office in Norwich. Red Cross volunteers at Unatego could not say how many, if any, people were expected to use the shelter.

"It's hit or miss," said Keith Endicott, emergency services coordinator of the Southern Tier chapter of the Red Cross. "In rural communities, most people plan ahead for this."

As of 6 p.m. Monday, about 1,000 Otsego Electric Co-op customers were without power, some since Saturday night, according to Robert Murdock, chief executive officer of the co-op.

"We've restored service, and then an hour later it was back off," he said, "and all the work we did was for naught."

Most of the affected customers were in the southwest quarter of Otsego County, Murdock said. He estimated that power would be restored for all customers by Wednesday night.

Niagara Mohawk reported thousands without power in portions of New York state, including about 250 in Gloversville and 250 in Cobleskill. All customers, except those in Voorheesville — where there was significant pole damage — were expected to have power restored by Monday night, NiMo spokesman Alberto Bianchetti said.

The weather forecast for today calls for partly sunny weather with a chance of snow or rain showers late in the day. Tonight is to be mostly cloudy with a change of snow or rain showers.