Thursday Update: Dry Ice Available, Some Government Buildings Open

[Updated, 12:50 p.m. Thursday] — Southeast Highway Department Superintendent Kevin Palmer said a few moments ago that the following roads are closed: 

• Allview Avenue
• Fields Lane
• Joes Hill Road
• Nelson Boulevard

[Updated, 11 a.m. Thursday] County Executive released a statement a few moments ago noting the number of closed roads in Putnam is 45. Yesterday that number was 145. At that time, about 80 percent of residents were without power. Now, the figure is 62 percent. Here's the breakdown (first percentage is Oct. 31, second is Nov. 1):

     ·  Village of Brewster: 80%, 29%
     ·  Carmel: 89%, 60%
     ·  Kent: 99%, 72%
     ·  Patterson: 93%, 90%
     ·  Putnam Valley: 99%, 98%
     .  Philipstown: 31%, 14%
     .  Southeast: 56%, 56%

All roads in the Village of Brewster, except for Allview Avenue, are open, according to Brewster Police Chief John DelGardo.

[Original story, 10:10 a.m. Thursday] While many in Putnam are still dealing with a lack of power after Hurricane Sandy, the area is slowly returning to normal—with fewer outages and more establishments open for business.

The Brewster Public Library has had power restored, and will be back in service starting at about 10 a.m. Thursday. In the Village of Brewster, government offices are open Thursday, as they were Wednesday.

Most—about 850 out of the 1,200, according to the New York State Electric & Gas website—of the customers in the Village of Brewster had power Thursday morning. Two of the traffic lights on Route 22 in Patterson were back in service by then, too.

Across Putnam, the outage total is down. Thursday morning numbers showed a total of 26,587. Wednesday morning that figure was more than 30,000. Many in Mahopac regained power overnight. 

In the Town of Southeast, a little more than half of the company's customers—approximately 3,400—are still waiting. A couple of them sounded off on this Patch story. At the time of this post, the company had yet to provide expected times of restoration on its website. On Wednesday, about 56 percent of Southeast folks were in the dark, according to County Executive MaryEllen Odell.

For those folks, dry ice and water is available at Hudson Valley Cerebral Palsy Association. Town and Village officials will be there until 7 p.m. Thursday.

"Like yesterday, supplies will be more plentiful after fresh pickups from NYSEG," Councilwoman Liz Hudak wrote to the Yahoo group Brewster10509. "I believe that the times should be like yesterday, 11am and 4pm...we will be giving you some more updates throughout the day."

Residents are welcome to charge electronics and warm up there. People in other areas of Putnam have similar options in their respective towns. No overnight shelters are available.

Carmel and Mahopac schools will be closed Thursday and Friday. Brewster will be closed—for the fourth consecutive day—Thursday, with no word on the rest of the week as of the time of this post.

Many businesses (including Bernie's Deli, Bob's Diner, Brewster Superette, DeCicco's Family Markets, Kelly's Corner, McDonald's, Seven Star School of Performing Arts (after noon), Splash Car Wash and TrueCare Pharmacy) and gas stations in Brewster and Southeast are open for business. The Putnam County Board of Elections is open too, as of 10 a.m. Wednesday.

On a county-wide level, Odell said Wednesday that all events are canceled until further notice. Putnam County Transit and Para-Transit was suspended indefinitely earlier in the week.