Following is Central Hudson's morning update of service restoration efforts.

Central Hudson Battles Tough Conditions to Tackle Difficult Repairs

After three full days of a massive recovery effort that has mobilized more than a 1,000 workers, Central Hudson has restored electricity to approximately 85 percent of the more than 180,000 customers who lost service as a result of Tropical Storm Irene, the second worst natural disaster in the history of the utility. The remaining outages are largely located where damage from the storm was most severe and where working conditions are exceptionally difficult. As of Thursday morning, we estimate that we still need to reconnect about 25,000 of our customers, most of them located in the areas that were hit hardest by this powerful and deadly storm, said James P. Laurito, President of Central Hudson. We are still working to complete thorough damage assessment in some of the remote, inaccessible locations of Albany, Greene, and Sullivan and Ulster counties, some of which have been declared federal disaster areas. Available crews and resources that restored power in Columbia, Dutchess, Orange and Putnam counties have now been redirected to aid in the more devastated counties in the northern and western portions of the utilitys service territory, and electricity is expected to be restored for at least 90 percent of the residents who live in these remaining, hardest-hit locations by 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 4.

While the vast majority of remaining customers will have electricity by Sunday evening, there are some customers that may be even weeks away from full recovery in these hard-hit areas, Laurito said. The devastation in some of those communities is tremendous. We are making progress and will accomplish still more going forward, but some areas where roads and poles have been completely washed away by severe flooding will require us to reconstruct the electric distribution system. The task is daunting but we will bring our system back. We are grateful to our customers for their continued patience and understanding. We are in this together. As of 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, the approximately 25,000 customers who remain without electric service in the high-impact areas are located as follows, with more than 90 percent of customers projected to be restored by Sept. 4, 2011, by 11:00 p.m. Albany County 1,400; Greene County 4,300; Sullivan County 550; and Ulster County 19,000. Central Hudson continues to solicit for additional mutual aid response and is receiving additional assistance, though resources have been strained throughout the Eastern Seaboard due to the extent of Irenes damage. Contract line construction crews from Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., are due in the Central Hudson region today and tomorrow to assist in the effort. Nearly 80 line and support personnel from Westar in Kansas have been making repairs here since Monday. In addition, line clearance crews are also arriving from other areas as they become available. We thank customers for their patience, the mutual aid

and contract line crews for their invaluable assistance, and the municipal and emergency services personnel who have worked alongside our Central Hudson crews from the beginning to make situations safe and roads passable, Laurito said. We will continue to throw everything we have at this restoration effort, but we could not continue to make the progress we have without the support of these key partners. We were impacted as a region and we have responded as a region to this natural disaster. Dry ice and water will be distributed by Central Hudson on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 3 p.m. at the following locations: - Cairo Angelo Canna Park Mountain Ave., Cairo (adjacent to Greene County Office of Emergency Preparedness) - Saugerties Cantine Sports Complex 10 Pavilion St. (off Washington Ave.), Saugerties, 12477 Central Hudson will also provide dry ice and water to the following municipalities that will distribute it at the following locations: - Accord Town of Rochester Comm. Center Tobacco Rd. Accord, 12404 Noon - Stone Ridge Marbletown Elementary School 12 Pine Bush Rd, Stone Ridge, NY 12484 Noon - Warwarsing Napanoch Firehouse

25 Plank Rd, Napanoch, NY 12458 Noon - Woodstock Town of Woodstock Comm. Center Rock City Rd., Woodstock, NY, 12498 Noon Central Hudson officials continue to warn local residents that serious flooding conditions also have the potential to undermine the stability of underground pipelines; they remind customers who may see damage in the vicinity of pipelines and/or who may smell the odor of natural gas to report the condition via the utilitys Gas Odor Hotline: 1800-942-8274. Laurito also stressed the importance of staying away from downed lines and being alert to the possibility that fallen trees or structures may hide energized electric lines. Customers may call Central Hudsons PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report their power condition. Customers with access to a computer may also report their power condition via the utilitys website, www.CentralHudson.com, by using the StormCentral function. Information regarding service restoration estimates, as it becomes available, can be obtained by phone and online, and updates are posted on Facebook and Twitter. A mobile version of the utilitys website, including StormCentral, can be accessed by web enabled cell phones and mobile devices at http://mobile.CentralHudson.com. Free Central Hudson mobile applications for Android-based and Apple devices are also available by logging onto www.CentralHudson.com/mobileapp.