High winds with gusts up to 70 mph knocked out power in the

Syracuse University area Thursday night, said Carrie Burns, spokeswoman for the Niagara Mohawk Corporation Communications Department.

‘Wind gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour continue to bring down trees and tree limbs as well as hundreds of power lines and utility poles across our systems,’ Burns said.

The first power outage in the university area occurred at about 9 p.m. and lasted until about 10 p.m. The second occurred at about 11:15 p.m. and lasted until about 11:45 p.m.

The outages affected several areas throughout city, including Erie

Boulevard and the southeast corner of campus. Residents from the 700 to 900 blocks of Ostrom, Livingston, Sumner, Ackerman and Lancaster avenues were affected.

Residents from the 100 to 400 blocks of Clarendon Street and Euclid and

Stratford avenues were also affected by the outage.

‘I had just hit ‘print’ when the power went out,’ said P.J. Nazarechuk, a senior computer science major and a resident on the 700 block of Livingston Avenue. ‘I could have spent that time studying.’

About 5,500 residents in Onondaga, Madison and Cortland counties were without power and about 250 Niagara Mohawk employees were dispatched to work through the night to fix downed power lines, Burns said.

Some areas of Syracuse that remain powerless could still be without power as late as Saturday, according to a Niagara Mohawk information line.

Published on November 13, 2003 at 12:00 pm