30K NY Utility Customers Without Power After Severe Storms

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — More than 30,000 utility customers in eastern New York are without electricity after severe thunderstorms packing high winds knocked down trees and power lines across the region.

Thursday evening's storms also brought heavy rain, hail and numerous lightning strikes to some areas. Most of the outages Friday morning are in Rensselaer, Albany, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties.

Several school districts have called off classes because buildings don't have electricity service.

National Grid has the most outages with about 29,000, including 18,000 in neighboring Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties. The utility's website says it's assessing the storm damage and no estimated time of power restoration is available for those areas.

Several homes in the Albany area were damaged by falling trees.