Churchville area without power 36 hours
Feb. 1 winds down wires; community 'pitches in'

Although Churchville residents went without power for about 36 hours, Department of Public Works Superintendent Dave Adams said the village sustained only minor damage from the February 1 windstorm, and efforts by his crews, Niagara Mohawk, and the Churchville Volunteer Fire Department minimized homeowners’ losses.

"I think we were very fortunate," Adams told trustees at the February 4 village board meeting. He said the Churchville Electric system did not suffer much damage at all, the problem was damage to the transmission line that feeds the village.

High winds the afternoon of Friday, February 1 knocked down five power poles on Churchville-Riga Road south of the village. The poles belong to Niagara Mohawk and bring power into the village from LeRoy through Caledonia.

Adams said Niagara Mohawk first sent in crews to deal with life or property threatening situations. By Saturday afternoon, crews from Massachusetts were working to rebuild the line south of the village, and had power restored to the Churchville substation by 9 p.m.

"By 12:30 (a.m.) everybody had power," said Adams. "Niagara Mohawk did an admirable job," getting service restored as quickly as it did, he said.

Volunteer firefighters spent both days on duty around the clock, responding to more than 60 calls, according to Churchville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Greg Harmer. He said his crew staffed the firehouse from about 3 a.m. Friday until 11 p.m. Saturday.

"The village and town (of Riga) crews were great to work with," Harmer said. "Anything we needed - trees removed, roads barricaded … anything I needed, I would call and it would be done right away. The village, the town and the fire department worked great together."

Harmer said residents were very supportive as well, calling with offers of spare generators and food for hungry and exhausted firefighters. He said the fire department’s Ladies Auxiliary brought in three meals a day. The Town of Riga provided a van and a driver to transport residents in need to the Byron-Bergen warming and emergency center.

At first, the CVFD responded to lots of calls about wires down in people’s yards, and carbon monoxide detectors going off due to generator use, Harmer said. But by early Saturday those calls became mostly requests by homeowners to pump out basements that began to flood when the power went out and sump pumps quit working.

About 3 a.m., volunteer crews from Chili’s fire department came in to help out. "We worked together," Harmer said. "Chili helped … so our guys could get some rest, go and check their own homes."

Churchville DPW crews spent much of Saturday helping out in the village of Spencerport, Adams said, because Niagara Mohawk uses only its own unionized crews to service its equipment. Until it was time to carefully power up the village once the sub-station was back online, crews could not do much in the village.

Adams said the fact that the temperature rose over 40 degrees before the winds kicked up, spared the village a lot of additional damage. "The ice had been loosening up and the wind just blew it off the trees," he said.

At the February 4 board meeting, Adams and board members discussed ways to improve communication with residents during emergencies such as a power outage. Mayor Donald R. Ehrmentraut called it "very important" to get a new phone system, that can update messages to the public frequently, up and running as soon as possible. "They deserve an update," he said.

Ehrmentraut said readying the new Village Hall to serve as a "warming and feeding" center would be another priority for the village.

In other news, Luster-Coate Metallizing Corp., in bankruptcy, closed its Churchville plant last week, leaving its 40 local employees out of work.